This is a Batak Shaman's calendar made out of bone and intricately decorated with scrimshaw on both sides. The material is probably whale bone, but it could be from any large mammal. The region where these calendars were used is between Sumatra and Celebes in Indonesia. One side of the artifact has scrimshaw depicting four creatures. One is a serpent. Another is a scorpion. The other two look like a termite and some kind of lizard. The concave side has the calendar which has 30 rows and 12 columns, so it is nearly one square per day of a calendar year. The calendar has diagonal bands that separate the squares by 7 units (weeks), another mark of a calendal design. One end of the calendar is pierced for the insertion of a string. This is a large shaman calendar. This artifact is old and in very nice condition. I purchased it from the Barxlay Gallery in 1987.

One of my friends did some research on the symbols on this calendar. I will include the original of his report with the Batak.