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1916.36.167

Roughly flaked stone blade. [FB 26/06/2014]

1916.36.167

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Collection type
Object
Description
Roughly flaked stone blade. [FB 26/06/2014]
Geographical reference
Rapa Nui
Oceania > Polynesia > Rapa Nui
Date / Period
Date made: Before 18/08/1915
Date collected
Between 29 March 1914 and 18 August 1915
Acquisition information
Donated: 1916
Materials and processes
Material Stone, Process Flaked
Dimensions
Width: max 65 mm, Length: max 155 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1916.36.167
Research and responses

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 & L.Ph 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Please note that the unpublished field notes relating to this expedition are at the Royal Geographical Society.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]

Associated publications
One of twenty objects from the Pitt Rivers Museum included in the exhibition catalogue Making Monuments on Rapa Nui: The Statues from Easter Island, by Colin Richards and Bryan Sitch (Manchester: The University of Manchester, Manchester Museum, 2015). On page 38 in the section 'Making the Monuments' this particular object is one of a group described as follows: 'Group of fourteen stone tools used to make moai including adzes or toki and pebble hammers. Some of the toki have an oblique cutting edge. Thor Heyerdahl in Aku Aku describes how, in an attempt to carve a moai during his 1950s expedition, the islanders stopped regularly to resharpen their toki. However, they were working an old, weathered rock face. Newly exposed stone is softer and easier to carve. Unknown date. Lent by the British Museum (Oc1898,1010.11, Oc1920,0506.56), National Museums Liverpool (54.160.200-206, 209) and the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, 1916.36.167, 1916.36.175, 1916.36.191 and 1916.36.249'. This object is also illustrated in a colour photograph on page 20 with the caption (same page): 'Above: Stone adze or toki used to make stone statues from Rapa Nui.' [ZM 9/9/2015]

Search terms: Tool, Blade Flake, Adze

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