Qulliq and ukkusik
A qulliq oil lamp and a separate ukkusik cooking pot form an Inuit heat-processing pair. Sources document soapstone forms, animal-oil lighting and cooking uses, and museum objects from the Eastern Arctic.
Equipment · Historical object · Lamps and burners
Ceramic cooking lamp
A Rocky Cree clay lamp dated approximately 1200–1500 is recorded from Southern Indian Lake, northern Manitoba. The Manitoba Museum links this lamp tradition to cooking, drying, heating and lighting lodges.
A clay lamp in northern Manitoba
The Manitoba Museum records a Rocky Cree ceramic lamp dated approximately 1200–1500 and associates its use with the Asiniskaw Inthinew (Rocky Cree) living around Southern Indian Lake in northern Manitoba. Its account describes oil-fuelled lamps as tools for cooking, drying, heating and lighting lodges. The date belongs to the museum object; it is not an invention date for lamps or a claim that this practice began or ended within those years.
Sources for this section
A related form made in another material
The collection account places this object in a specific history of exchange and adaptation. It says Rocky Cree neighbors learned lamp technology from Kivallirmiut (Caribou Inuit) communities to the east along the Hudson Bay coast. Inuit Kudlik or Qulliq lamps were carved from soapstone; similar-shaped Cree lamps appear to have been molded from clay. The comparison is about a related lamp form and transferred technology, not identical construction or a single shared cultural tradition. The museum describes this adoption as the only occurrence in Canada where Cree people took up lamp technology.
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What the record establishes
The surviving object shows that clay could be used for a lamp in a northern setting, where a soapstone precedent is recorded among neighbouring Inuit communities. It is a broad, shallow, oval piece with substantial wear and missing or fragmented areas, so it is a damaged museum object rather than a complete technical drawing. Its measurements, forming and firing process, oil source, wick material, flame control, supports and the arrangement used for cooking above it are not known.
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Use and interpretation
The documented functions bring light and household heat together with food work: one lamp technology served cooking and drying as well as heating and illumination. The collection page does not describe a single recipe, a particular food, or a standardized operating procedure, so this equipment record does not prescribe fuel, wick, vessel placement, or firing practice. It is most useful as evidence that Cree makers adopted a neighboring technology and expressed it in clay, while the museum's approximate date and wording should remain attached to that particular object and account.
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Equipment details
PowerNot established The museum describes oil-fuelled use, but the available power-source vocabulary has no liquid-fuel value; no oil species or burner arrangement is specified.
How you get oneNot established The museum documents a historical object, but the inspected sources do not establish how it was made, acquired, or whether comparable examples can be obtained today.
Made of
- clay — lamp body
The Manitoba Museum says similar-shaped Cree lamps appear to have been molded from clay; it gives no clay type, forming method details or dimensions.
Places
Southern Indian Lake area, northern Manitoba
Historical attestation · Region evidenceThe museum associates Rocky Cree lamp use with this area; the object date is approximate, and the entry does not claim the place as the technology's sole origin.
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Sources
The Manitoba Museum; Association of Manitoba MuseumsHistory · Material · Geography · Use · Comparative context
Ceramic LampThe museum dates a Rocky Cree ceramic lamp approximately 1200–1500.
The account associates Asiniskaw Inthinew (Rocky Cree) oil-lamp use for cooking, drying, heating and lighting lodges with the Southern Indian Lake area of northern Manitoba.
The museum says Kivallirmiut (Caribou Inuit) neighbors to the east along Hudson Bay shared lamp technology; Inuit lamps were carved from soapstone, while similar-shaped Cree lamps appear molded from clay.
The museum describes this as the only occurrence in Canada where lamp technology was adopted by Cree people.
Cited in: A clay lamp in northern Manitoba; A related form made in another material; What the record establishes; Use and interpretation