Bow And Drilling Apparatus Item Number: E7431-0 from the National Museum of Natural History

Notes

Source of the information below: Inuvialuit Pitqusiit Inuuniarutait: Inuvialuit Living History, The MacFarlane Collection website, by the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre (ICRC), Inuvik, N.W.T., Canada (website credits here http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/posts/12 ), entry on this artifact http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/items/2 , retrieved 1-27-2020: Bow drill set consisting of a bow and spindle. The bow has been fashioned from a rib. A thong made from twisted sinew is attached through a hole drilled at one end of the bow; at the other end a drilled hole has broken, and the lashing has been tied around the rib. The spindle has a wood shaft and an iron bit that is inserted into a slice cut into one end and held in place with a sinew lashing. More information here: http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/item_types/20: The bow drills in the MacFarlane Collection were used for boring holes into wood, antler, bone and ivory. The drill spindle (shaft) has a bit at one end, and the other end is shaped to fit into a bearing that is held between the teeth. The spindle is rotated by wrapping a slack thong attached at each end of a drill bow around it, and moving the bow back and forth. Ancestral Inuvialuit also used another type of bow drill for starting fires.