Ammassalik wooden maps: carved, tactile maps of the Greenlandic coastlines made by Inuit, 1884.
Inuit/Eskimo knowledge of the shape of coastlines was of great help to European explorers and even today comparisons of maps they drew for captains like Crozier display an astonishing accuracy when compared to our own modern charts.
These wooden representations of the coast are an elegant solution to the often mobile lifestyle they lived and the difficult terrain and conditions they experienced.
As well as being an object of utility and of beauty, it represents a way of life and a way of thinking that for many of us appears attractive despite it being so dramatically removed from our own lives and even our own histories. It’s no wonder that this civilisation is so romanticised and admired today.
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