Inuit wooden maps of Ammassalik
Mapas inuit de madera de Ammassalik
- Date
- documentados en 1884-1885 · confidence medium
- Place
- Tasiilaq (Ammassalik), Greenland
- Credited to
- Inuit of Ammassalik (Gustav Holm's collection)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What it is
Maps carved on driftwood blocks that reproduce the east Greenland coast in relief, with fjords, islands and peninsulas. They can be read by touch in the dark or with gloves and float if dropped in water.
They are known from the Danish Gustav Holm expedition's collections (1884-1885); their exact antiquity as a practice is unknown, and there is no proof they were used for navigation rather than to explain routes.
What it led to
- a record of Inuit knowledge of the coastline in three dimensions
- an example of tactile mapping adapted to the Arctic