The Cape Alitak Petroglyphs: From the Old People
128 pages, 7 x 10
60 color plates
Paperback
Release Date:15 Sep 2007
ISBN:9781578642120
The Cape Alitak Petroglyphs: From the Old People
Llirluni cuuliraq suuiut cingiyaq Alitak patriitaq
By Woody Knebel
University of Alaska Press, Alaska Donning Company
The Cape Alitak Petroglyphs is the culmination of Woody Knebel’s ten years spent drawing, photographing, and experiencing the mysteries of this windswept place at the southern entrance to the Kodiak Archipelago. Shedding important light on Kodiak rock art, this volume provides in-depth cultural and artistic insight into an unusually rich picture of Alutiiq conventions, traditional symbolic history, and spiritual belief. Accompanied by color maps and black-and-white photography, The Cape Alitak Petroglyphs captures the majesty and mystery of the five hundred individual images that form the largest known cluster of stationary rock carvings in the Alaskan region and provides an important comparison to the many other forms of Alutiiq artistic expression preserved in artifacts and historic objects.
Woody Knebel studied marine science at the University of Victoria and spent many years in Bristol Bay, Alaska, working side by side with the Y’upik people. While working at a turn-of-the-century salmon cannery at the south end of Kodiak Island, he came into contact with the aboriginal lands of the Alutiiq people and their ancestors—the creators of the Cape Alitak petroglyphs.
Foreword
Preface
Introduction and Greetings
1 The Different Disciplines
2 What Is a Petroglyph? Types of Ancient Rock Art
3 The Road Towards the Sun
4 Why Kodiak Island?
5 The Cape Alitak Petroglyphs
6 Shamanism
7 North Cape Site
8 South Cape Site
9 The Goldmine Site
10 Stand-Alone-Rocks
11 Bear Point
12 Etiquette
13 Language
14 Tools
15 Folklore/Myths
Epilogue
Tell a Story
Appendix I: Explanations for the Petroglyphs
Appendix II: The Power
Appendix III: Eye of the Bear
Glossary
Bibliography
The Author
