Ammassalik wooden maps are carved, tactile maps of the Greenlandic coastlines. In the 1880s, Gustav Holm led an expedition to the Ammassalik coast of eastern Greenland, where he met several Tunumiit, or Eastern Greenland Inuit communities, who had had no prior direct contact with Europeans. He returned to Denmark with a set of three-dimensional wooden maps of the coast around 66°N36°W / 66°N 36°W , carved by a native of Umivik named Kunit.
Kunit approached Holm on February 8, 1885, and sold the maps representing the coast from Sermiligak to Kangerdlugsuatsiak. Kunit returned on March 21 with another piece representing the peninsula between Sermiligak and Kangerdluarsikajik. [1]
Upon Holm's return, the maps were deposited along with the rest of the collection at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. As of 1948 the maps were still in Copenhagen; copies were deposited in the Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro in Paris. [2] At some point the maps were transferred to the Greenland National Museum in Nuuk, which was established in the mid-1960s. [3] Woodward & Lewis (1998) write that the "only other known example" of such a map is a specimen at the Michigan State University Museum — item 896.7, 62154 — which is probably a copy of Kunit's work. [4]
In 2000, Post Greenland issued a stamp designed by Anne-Birthe Hove featuring the coastal map, as part of its "Greenland's Cultural Heritage" series. [5] The Greenland National Museum loaned out the maps for a 2007-8 exhibition at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago entitled Maps: Finding Our Place in the World, [6] which also traveled to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. [7]
| Description given by Kunit to Holm [8] | Sølver [9] | Elkins [10] | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sadlermiut, on the west side of which is the site of an old settlement [11] | 66°13′N35°32′W / 66.21°N 35.53°W | ||
| 2 | Nepinerkit (from napavok), having the shape of a pyramid [12] | 66°07′N35°34′W / 66.12°N 35.57°W | ||
| 3 | Ananak, having the site of an old settlement on the southwest point [13] | 66°06′N35°38′W / 66.10°N 35.64°W | Others give the name Ananak to the cape on the mainland directly opposite, calling the island Kajartalik. [8] | |
| 4 | Aputitek | 66°02′N35°38′W / 66.03°N 35.63°W | 66°01′N35°52′W / 66.02°N 35.87°W | Sølver's label is closer to the bottom part of the third island than it is to the fourth island. [14] |
| 5 | Itivdlersuak | 66°01′N35°46′W / 66.01°N 35.76°W | Unidentified [15] | |
| 6 | Kujutilik | 65°58′N35°55′W / 65.97°N 35.91°W | 66°01′N35°46′W / 66.01°N 35.76°W | |
| 7 | Sikivitik | 65°55′N36°01′W / 65.92°N 36.02°W | Unidentified [15] | |
| A | Itivdlek, where there are remains of a house [16] | 66°19′N34°51′W / 66.32°N 34.85°W | 66°18′N35°28′W / 66.30°N 35.47°W | Sølver identifies this feature with Cape Wandel. [9] |
| B | Sierak, a small fjord, in which salmon are found [17] | 66°19′N35°13′W / 66.32°N 35.22°W | 66°19′N35°29′W / 66.32°N 35.48°W | Sølver identifies this feature with the fjord Nigertusok, or possibly with the point of land at its elbow. [9] |
| C | Sarkarmiut, where there are remains of a house [16] | 66°16′N35°11′W / 66.27°N 35.19°W | 66°18′N35°32′W / 66.30°N 35.53°W | Sølver identifies this feature with Cape Japetus Steenstrup. [9] |
| D | Kangerdlugsuatsiak, a fjord of such length that a kayak can not even in a whole day row from the mouth to the head of the fjord and back again [18] | 66°15′N35°21′W / 66.25°N 35.35°W | 66°17′N35°39′W / 66.29°N 35.65°W | Sølver places this feature on the fjord marked Sarkarmiut in the map. [9] Elkins places it farther inland. [10] |
| E | Erserisek, a little fjord [19] | 66°14′N35°34′W / 66.24°N 35.57°W | 66°14′N35°37′W / 66.23°N 35.62°W | Sølver and Elkins almost agree on this feature; Elkins places the label farther inland, while Sølver includes part of the Odesund. [9] [10] |
| F | Nutugkat, a little fjord with a creek at the bottom [20] | 66°08′N35°40′W / 66.13°N 35.67°W | ||
| G | Merkeriak, kayak portage from Nutugkat to Erserisek along the bank of the creek, when the heavy ice blocks the headland between the two fjords [21] | 66°13′N35°46′W / 66.21°N 35.77°W | ||
| H | Ikerasakitek, a bay in which the land ice goes straight out to the sea [22] | |||
| I | Kangerajikajik, a cape [23] | |||
| J | Kavdlunak, a bay into which runs a creek [24] | |||
| K | Apusinek, a long stretch where the land ice passes out into the sea. [25] | |||
| L | Tatorisik | |||
| M | Iliartalik, a fjord with a smaller creek [26] | |||
| N | Nuerniakat | |||
| O | Kugpat | |||
| P | Igdluarsik | |||
| Q | Sangmilek, a little fjord with a creek [27] | |||
| R | Nutugkat | |||
| S | Amagat | |||
| T | Kangerdluarsikajik, a smaller fjord [28] | |||
| U | Kernertuarsik | |||
Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen was a Danish author, ethnologist, and explorer, from Ringkøbing. He was most notably an explorer of Greenland.
Paul or Poul Hansen Egede was a Dano-Norwegian theologian, missionary, and scholar who was principally concerned with the Lutheran mission among the Kalaallit people in Greenland that had been established by his father, Hans, in 1721.
William C. Thalbitzer was a Danish philologist and professor of Eskimo studies at the University of Copenhagen. He studied Danish, English and Latin at the university, but after graduating in 1899 he decided to focus on "exotic" languages. In 1900 he spent a year in Ilulissat in western Greenland studying the Greenlandic language. From 1905 to 1907 he with his wife spent eighteen months among the natives in Tasiilaq, one of the most isolated places on the coast of eastern Greenland. In 1920 the University of Copenhagen established a permanent lecture position for Thalbitzer in "Greenlandic (Eskimo) language and culture". In 1952 he was made an honorary doctor at the University of Copenhagen.
Gustav Frederik Holm was a Danish naval officer and Arctic explorer born in Copenhagen.
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