Unfinished shell shank of fishing hook, from excavations at the central vault at Nan Madol.

Collection type: Object
Description: Unfinished shell shank of fishing hook, from excavations at the central vault at Nan Madol.
Long description: Unfinished pearlshell fishing hook shank, from excavations at the central vault at Nan Madol. One of 31 stored in a clear-fronted museum box.
Geographical reference: Micronesia, Federated States of
Oceania > Micronesia > Micronesia, Federated States of
Person: Field collector Frederick William Christian; PRM source Frederick William Christian
Date
Date collected: 15 March 1899
Acquisition information: Purchased: 1899
Materials and processes: Material Pearl Shell, Process Carved
Dimensions: Width: max 17 mm, Length: max 56 mm, Weight 12 g
Object numbers: Accession number: 1899.82.5.25
Research and responses: For the vendor's own account of his 'excavation' of this material (1899.82.5.1-.37), see pages 85ff of The Caroline Islands: Travel in the Sea of the Little Lands, by F. W. Christian (London: Methuen & Co., 1899). In listing of the 'finds', Christian writes: 'Eighty pearl-shell shanks of fish-hooks in a more or less perfect condition, exactly resembling those used all over Polynesia before the coming of the white man. The hook itself was generally of bone, but we found some fragments of pearl-shell which were clearly relics of the barb.' [JC 17 2 2011]

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