The caribou figurine from the Canadian Arctic (above, top-left), dated to around 1920, was used in rituals by Inuit hunters.

The ¡°seal indicator¡± (above, bottom-left), also Canadian and from the early 20th century, was placed above a breathing hole in the ice located with the help of dogs. Hunters would wait patiently for hours, ready to strike with a harpoon when they saw the feather move.

The mid-19th-century women¡¯s sewing kit from Alaska (above, right) includes a needle case, a holder to hide thimbles and an awl.

All these items come from the University of Aberdeen¡¯s rich collection of ethnographic material from the Arctic. They are on display at the King¡¯s Museum on the Aberdeen campus until 7 September as part of an exhibition titled Nunalleq: The Yupiit and the Arctic World.

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The exhibition also includes masks, dolls, ivory carvings and other remarkable discoveries from a prehistoric Alaskan village on the shores of the Bering Sea, where the local community asked Aberdeen archaeologists to carry out a dig to rescue artefacts threatened by erosion.

The material is owned by the village corporation of Qanirtuuq and will return to Alaska after it has been conserved, catalogued and analysed.

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Send suggestions for this series on the treasures, oddities and curiosities owned by universities across the world to matthew.reisz@tsleducation.com