- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Necklace of perforated brown plant seeds threaded on vegetable fibre string and tied into a circle. [LM 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 17/8/2005]
- Long description
- Necklace of perforated brown plant seeds threaded on vegetable fibre string and tied into a circle. The dark reddish brown seeds are oval shaped and perforated through the centre. Many of the seeds have applied white spots, unsure if this is deliberate. [MJD 23/06/2010]
- Cultural groups
- Arrernte
- Person
- Field collector Francis James Gillen
- Field collector Walter Baldwin Spencer
- PRM source Walter Baldwin Spencer
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1902
- Date collected
- 1901 - 1902
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1903
- Materials and processes
- Material Plant Seed, Material String, Material Plant Fibre, Material Pigment, Process Strung, Process Perforated, Process Twisted, Process Painted
- Dimensions
- Length: max 1330 mm doubled
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1903.39.42 Other numbers: Spencer number 22
- Research and responses
This object was seen by Philip Jones from the South Australian Museum during a visit from 3 to 6 May 2011. The following comments were recorded: This necklace is not a ceremonial object but secular. It was probably worn in a triple loop. The string is probably European parcel string. The holes in the seeds look regular and smooth – may have been made by hot metal fencing wire. [MJD 16/05/2011]
This object was collected during an expedition of Central Australia led by Walter Baldwin Spencer and Francis Gillen between 1901 and 1902. However, it should be noted that accompanying them was an Aboriginal man called Erlikilyika. He was 'hired' (receiving no monetary payment) to run their campsites, but actually undertook some of the ethnographic work himself. He could speak Arrernte (his native language), Kaytej (another Aboriginal language), and English. In their personal field-diaries, Spencer and Gillen note that they took days off work, leaving Erlikilyika with "entire charge of the ethnological branch", where he spoke with and recorded the complex beliefs and customs of Aboriginal communities that were not his own (the Kaytetye group in particular). Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing if Erlikilyika collected any of these objects himself but we know that he played a vital role in documenting their meaning and significance, and should therefore be credited for his valuable contributions to the expedition. This information was provided by Fionnuala Bradbury, a Master's student in Archaeology at Newcastle University, as part of her thesis entitled "Erlikilyika and Walter Baldwin Spencer: Indigenous Informants, Ethnographic Analogy, and Archaeological Interpretation". There is an abridged version of the thesis in RDF.
Search terms: Ornament, Neck Ornament