1916.36.340.5

Collection type

Object

Description

Obsidian stone tool (mata'a ).

Geographical reference

Rapa Nui

Oceania > Polynesia > Rapa Nui

Person

Field collector William Scoresby Routledge

Field collector Katherine Maria Routledge

PRM source William Scoresby Routledge

Date / Period

Date made: Before 18/08/1915

Date collected

Between 29 March 1914 and 18 August 1915

Acquisition information

Donated: 1916 Found unentered: 29/04/2004

Materials and processes

Material Obsidian Stone

Dimensions

Width: max 86 mm, Length: max 92 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1916.36.340.5

Research and responses

Found unentered 29/4/2004. These obsidian stone tools are not listed in the original accession book (see 1916.36.81 - 146, 1916.36.237 - 238, and 1916.36.260) and have been allocated accession numbers 1916.36.340 .1 - .103. [ZM 29/4/2004]

Please note that this number has been assigned to this object after lying out and cataloguing the entire collection of stone tools that the Routledge's collected from Easter Island. Many of these objects had no information that we could use to determine which accession number was assigned when these objects were accessioned as the details in the accession book are rather vague. Therefore we have matched items to records as best we could, but if other objects are located at some time in the future these records may have to been amended. [ZM & LP 29/4/2004]

Please note that the Routledge's published account of their journey includes many specific object references, drawings, maps and photographs. Please refer to: Routledge, Mrs. [Katherine] Scoresby Routledge (1919) The Mystery of Easter Island: The Story of an Expedition. London: Sifton, Praed & Co. Ltd. [L.Ph 29/4/2004]

Please note that the unpublished field notes relating to this expedition are at the Royal Geographical Society. This information was found on p. 334 of the biography of Katherine Routledge (Pease): van Tilburg, Jo Anne (2003) Among Stone Giants: The Life of Katherine Routledge and her Remarkable Expedition to Easter Island. London: Scribner. [L.Ph 29/4/2004]

These objects were examined by Drs Sue Hamilton, Ruth Whitehouse and M. Seager Thomas as part of the Fell funded project Characterizing the World Archaeology Collections. Their preliminary analysis of the obsidian identified a relationship between mata’a and one of two macroscopically distinguishable types of obsidian present on the Island (all but one of those in the collection are of a dull, possibly slightly crystalline variety; the exception—1916.36.340.100—is much glassier), which may have functional or even chronological implications (mata’a are often thought to be late). [AS 29/10/2010]

Search terms: Weapon, Spear-head