1886.1.1271

Collection type

Object

Description

Carved wooden male figure, moai tangata.

Long description

Carved wooden figure, said to be a representation of Captain Cook. The hair is incised, as are the eyebrows, with neat grooved lines in a herringbone pattern. The mouth is straight and thin, and is closed with no teeth incised. The nose is straight and prominent with no nostrils carved-out. The almond-shaped eyes are large and there are circular concavities where presumably shell and/or glass was once inlaid. The head has been carved on an angle to face slightly left of centre, and the ears are realistic and large but not distended. The neck is straight with no bumps or decorations added, and the clavicles are visible across the front of the shoulders by a carved arched ridge of wood. Nodules carved to represent nipples and a navel are present, but worn. The arms hang straight by the sides, with fingerless hands attached at the hips. Wooden nodules have been carved on the outside of both wrists. Elbows have also been accentuated with a slight thickening in the carving of the arm. The buttocks are rounded and protruding, with no decoration or markings added. The legs are straight, although the knees appear slightly bent. The feet are very small with toes indistinguishable. The phallus is still present. It has been carved as a separate piece which fits into a hole bored into the groin. [The figure is standing on a black wooden base, held in place with a metal rod which hooks around its waist.] Damage: There is a large crack running down the right side of the chest from the collar bone to the groin, and a small crack running under the right foot and up the leg. There is also a crack down the centre, running from the base of the neck to just above the buttocks. The wood on the inside of both the legs is cracked and worn away. There is also a crack and small hole on the top of the head. A slightly darker patch on the left side of the belly indicates the possible remains of two former labels. A pin-hole just above the navel also suggests the attachment of a former label. There is a hole in the bottom of the right foot, possibly from a former stand. [Notes compiled by Emily Stokes-Rees, April 2003, in response to the detailed enquiries of Dederen Francois Te Pito.]

Geographical reference

Rapa Nui

Oceania > Polynesia > Rapa Nui

Person

Field collector Unknown Collector

PRM source Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1863

Date collected

By 1863

Acquisition information

Transferred: 28/09/1885

Materials and processes

Material Wood Plant, Material Shell, Process Carved, Process Inlaid

Dimensions

Height 240 mm, Width: max 60 mm, Weight 198 g

Object numbers

Accession number: 1886.1.1271

Research and responses

Enerike Ngaara Te Manu Carrasco Hotu, Rapanui carver and archaeologist, saw this moai during a research visit in May 2025. He does not think it is a representation of Captain James Cook. The display label reads that this type of figure "differs considerably from the usual human figure carvings; there is no beard and the earlobes are not distended." Enerike highlighted that each Rapanui carver has their own style and preferences. As such, many figures made by local carvers do not represent certain facial features such as beards or long earlobes. The absence of these features on this moai does not mean that it represents a non-Rapanui or European person such as Captain Cook, just that the carver chose not to represent these features on this particular figure. In addition, the details of the figure are very intricate and would have taken more time to carve than Cook spent on Rapa Nui.

Associated publications

Referred to on page 271 of The Mystery of Easter Island: The Story of an Expedition, by Mrs [Katherine] Scorsesby Routledge (London and Aylesbury: [printed for the author by] Hazell, Watson and Viney, no date [1919]). Discussing the small wooden figures of Rapa Nui, she writes: 'It appears probably that they are portraits, or memorial figures, of which the older may have attained to deification: this is confirmed by the fact that there is one such figure at the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford, with short ears, which is said to have been made to represent Captain Cook.' [JC 23 11 2000] Listed on page 304 of the 'Catalogue of Aberrant Wood Carvings Collected Prior to the Norwegian Expedition in 1955-56', in The Art of Easter Island, by Thor Heyerdahl (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1976), pp. 276-308: 'NOT ILLUSTRATED (Oxford (Ashm.)): Human figure believed to represent Captain Cook. The material is a brownish wood carved to represent a naked male person standing with arms straight down the sides of the body. Large almond-shaped eyes with circular concavities have lost their former inlay. The large ridged eyebrows are covered with incision lines in a herringbone pattern. The realistic mouth is carved straight with thin, sharp lips. The ears are large, but realistic. The face is beardless, but hair is shown in V-shape along the forehead and down along the back of the head. The slim arms are separated from the body by slots and the fingerless hands are carved on the sides of the thighs. A penis is represented. The height is 24 cm. The carving, formerly belonging to the Ashmolean Museum, became part of the present collection when donated by George Griffiths [sic], Esq., as early as in 1859 [sic]. The obvious pre-missionary date of this carving shows beyond doubt that it is an authentic piece, but the reason for suspecting that it represents Captain Cook is obscure, particularly since the detail which must have impressed the natives most was Captain Cook's clothes.' [JC 23 11 2000] Reproduced in black and white as plate [lamina] 33 on page 111 of Iconografia de la Isla de Pascua, by Otto Klein Schwarz (Valparaiso: Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, 1988). Caption (same page) reads: 'moái tangáta que, equivocadamente se identifica con el retrato de James Cook'. Entry on pages 99-100 reads: 'LAMINA 33. Efigie de un hombre de raza blanca. La figura debe considerarse una primicia dentro de la categoría moái tangáta. Es, en efecto, un primer ensayo de retratar en bulto a una persona determinada. Algunos autores querían ver en esta escultura, una imagen del Capitán James Cook. No hay ninguna probabilidad que esta suposición sea acertada, ya que no existe ninguna coincidencia entre las corrientes estilísticas del año 1774 (año en que Cook visitó la Isla de Pascua) y las de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX. En el caso dado hay seguridad de que se trata de un auténtico moai tangáta con / algunos detailes que se apartan de la noima: un peinado al estilo occidental, cincelado en el ápice, ojos de tamaño exorbitante (faltan las incrustaciones), nariz recta, barba corta y postura erguida, algo marcial.' [JC 24 11 2000] "Caption translated into English from Iconografia de la Isla de Pascua, by Otto Kein Schwarz  Moái tangáta, which is mistakenly believed to be the portrait of Captain Cook. Plate 33. Effigy of a white man. The figure could be considered a first example within the moái tangáta category. It is indeed the first attempt to portray the bust of a specific person. Some authors wanted to see in this statute a resemblance to Captain Cook. There is no probability of this to be true, since there is no correspondence between the stylistic currents of 1774 (the year in which Cook visited Easter Island) and those of the second half of the 19th century. It is clear that this is an authentic moái tangáta, with some aspects that diverge from the norm: a western hairstyle, an incised apex, exorbitant eyes (the inlays are missing), straight nose, short beard and an upright posture, somehow martial." [PRA [OPS move] 19/12/2017] Illustrated in black and white as figures 50a, b, and c (front, back, left views respectively) on page 58 of 'Sculptures of Barkcloth and Wood from Rapa Nui: Symbolic Continuities and Polynesian Affinities', by Adrienne L. Kaeppler, in Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, no. 44 (Autumn 2003), pp. 10-69; and included, on pages 36-7, in her 'Inventory of Rapa Nui Sculptures Made of Barkcloth or Wood and their Documentation' as 'Inv. 37. 1863. Moai tangata, in the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, England, 1886.1.1271, given in 1863 to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, by George Griffith. It is said to be a representation of Captain Cook (because of its "hairstyle"). An almost identical twin to this figure is in the Smithsonian Institution; its earliest documentation is 1875, given by James H. Clark, of New Port, R.I.' [JC 23 12 2003] Published as number 249 in Corpus Rapa Nui: Inventaire mondial de la statuaire en bois de l'îles de Pâques / Global Inventory of the Wooden Statuary of Easter Island, by François Dederen ('Te Pito'), Braine-L'Alleud, Belgium: François Dederen (2013). The author's annotated line drawings (front and back) are on page 411 (see photocopy in RDF). On page 112 of his 'Description sommaire des pieces principales / Concise Description of the Principal Pieces', Dederen writes: 'Planche 249 (Pitt Rivers Museum) 1886.1.1271. Moai tangata assez frustre ayant perdu ses deux yeux; sa tête semble porter une coiffure formée de sillons parallèles et une grande fêlure va du cou à l'entre jambes.'; 'Plate 249 (Pitt River [sic] Museum) 1886.1.1271. This rather coarse moai tangata has lost its two eyes, the head has a hairdressing in form of parallel groove, a big crack going from the neck to the crunch of the legs.' The figure is also listed (as 1886 1-12-1271; sic) on page 79. [JC 10 10 2013] Illustrated in colour as Figure 29.1 on page 565 of 'Easter Island and Pitcairn Island', by Dan Hicks, Sue Hamilton, Mike Seager Thomas and Ruth Whitehouse, in World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: A Characterization, edited by Dan Hicks and Alice Stevenson (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2013), pp. 554-563. Caption (same page): 'Figure 29.1 Carved wooden figure of a European - possibly a representation of Captain cook - that was collected from Easter Island before 1863 (PRM Accession Numbers 1886.1.1271).'. [MJD 04/07/2014]

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