Introduction

Rare Eskimo flensing knives unearthed on remote Arctic island

We present a research article by a scholar from the S.A. Fyodorova Museum of Arctic Archaeology on flensing knives discovered on Chetrykhstolbovoy Island.

The term "flensing knife" derives from the English flensing knife—a tool used for removing blubber and skin from whale carcasses and other large marine animals (as shown in the main photograph).

While the name originates from English and the modern version—a curved iron blade with a long wooden handle—only emerged in the early 20th century, functionally similar knives were already in use among the ancestors of today's Inuit in North America and Chukotka. Ancient Eskimo peoples long practiced marine mammal hunting and employed such knives to process the carcasses of seals, walruses, bearded seals, and whales.

Archaeological Discoveries

One of the most significant archaeological sites of ancient Eskimo cultures in Russia is the Ekven Burial Ground (Chukotka, 1st millennium CE), discovered in 1960 by D.A. Sergeyev. Over a hundred burials linked to ancient Eskimo cultures were unearthed here, accompanied by a diverse array of slate tools, including flensing knives.

In Yakutia, the westernmost Eskimo settlement—located in the Medvezhyi Islands archipelago of the East Siberian Sea (Nizhnekolymsky District, Republic of Sakha)—has been known since the first Russian explorers. As early as the 17th century, artifacts from these Arctic hunters were found on Chetrykhstolbovoy Island (Fig. 2). From 1933 to 1995, a Soviet polar station operated on the island, and wintering researchers conducted amateur excavations at several Eskimo dwellings. The recovered artifacts are now held in museums in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Today, the archipelago is uninhabited and forms part of the Medvezhyi Islands State Nature Reserve (Fig. 2).

Findings in the Museum

The S.A. Fyodoseyeva Arctic Archaeology Museum houses two fragments and three well-preserved complete flensch knives (Figs. 3 and 4). According to N.N. Dikov's classification, these knives belong to the category of male slate knives, alongside female ulu knives, and are a defining feature of Arctic maritime hunter culture. All artifacts were discovered on Chetyrëkhsolbovoy Island (Four-Pillar Island).

The first professional excavations of the Eskimo settlement on the island were conducted as early as 1995 by the Lena River Archaeological Expedition (LRAE), led by Yury A. Mochalov. During these fieldworks, researchers uncovered the first two fragments and one large, intact flensch knife made of gray slate (Fig. 4). Only 26 years later, in 2021, archaeologists from the LRAE under the Arctic Research Institute of Culture and Arts of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) resumed excavations on the island. Their efforts documented ten semi-subterranean dwellings of maritime hunters. In one of these structures—preliminarily designated as Dwelling No. 4—a fourth flat flensch knife, also crafted from gray slate, was found. Then, in 2025, an inspection of Dwelling No. 5 yielded yet another similar knife. The blades share a comparable shape, suggesting they belong to the same cultural period.

Conclusion

Recent studies indicate that the settlements on Chetyrëkhsolbovoy Island date to the late Birnirk culture (9th–10th centuries CE). However, further research may yet uncover remnants of non-Eskimo cultures on the island. These findings provide additional evidence that non-Eskimo peoples engaged in Arctic maritime hunting inhabited the Yakutia Arctic zone as early as the late first millennium CE.