Paddle or club with cylindrical shaft which widens into the flat blade with crescentic expansion at the distal end. There is a flat triangular butt with similar crescentic expansion at the tip. [JC [OPS Move] 19/08/2016]

Collection type: Object
Description: Paddle or club with cylindrical shaft which widens into the flat blade with crescentic expansion at the distal end. There is a flat triangular butt with similar crescentic expansion at the tip. [JC [OPS Move] 19/08/2016]
Geographical reference: Papua New Guinea
Oceania > Melanesia > Papua New Guinea; New Ireland Bismarck Archipelago
Person: Field collector Unknown Collector; PRM source Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1878
Date collected: By 1878
Acquisition information: Transferred: 10/02/1886
Materials and processes: Material Wood Plant, Process Carved
Dimensions: Depth: max 25 mm, Length: max 1260 mm, Width: max 105 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1886.1.1480 Other numbers: ?37 1469
Research and responses: * There is a note in the Ramsden collectors volume stating 'Retrospective numbers written in pencil down left hand column June 1975 E.S.G. Collated with A.M. but considerable problems encountered. All Ramsden seem to be in A.M.' Note that this exercise may have been the source of the confusion that occurred during Elizabeth Sandford Gunn's work on the Ashmolean collection with regard to numbers. In some instances, these numbers SEEM to have been used to number the objects (wrongly). The measurements given in the vellum volume and the Ramsden catalogue entry differ but this seems the best match for the entry [AP 16/7/99] This object is not mentioned in Collectors Miscellaneous XI Accession Book entry - Ramsden coll pages 223 - 255 [AP 21/7/99]

Search terms: Navigation, Ritual and Ceremonial, Paddle, Ceremonial Object