Drilling Apparatus Item Number: E2073-0 from the National Museum of Natural History

Notes

FROM CARD: "3 PARTS EACH. 1 DRILL."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/27 , retrieved 12-30-2019: Bow drill set consisting of a bow, mouthpiece and spindle. The bow is a slightly curved piece of antler which has holes drilled through each end for holding a hide thong. The mouthpiece has been fashioned from wood, and has a bearing made from hard limestone or marble inset into it. The mouthpiece lacks the wide flanges for protecting the cheeks found on most items of this type in the collection. The spindle has a wood shaft and an iron bit held in an antler socket piece that is secured to the shaft 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.