- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Crocodile figure carved from steatite. [SM (Verve) 24/2/2016]
- Date
- Date collected
- By 1906
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1906
- Materials and processes
- Material Steatite Stone, Process Carved
- Dimensions
- Length: max 100 mm, Width: max 28 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1906.39.6
- Research and responses
See Balfour's diary entry for 3rd October 1905 in the PRM manuscript collection: "‘Tues. 3rd [Oct. 1905] Went out again with Andrews by the valley route to the camp, visiting several sites on the way. Some apparently villages or residencies with hut circles of stone + encompassing walls. So far, no definite kitchen middens found. Saw what appeared to be an ancient smithy. Did some excavating on the slopes of the main Kopje. Potsherds fairly plentiful + hardly anything else found. I found, however, a very roughly carved piece of steatite + close to it about 18 inches from surface a small carved crocodile in steatite, also one worked quartz flake". The crocodile referred to is probably this (1906.39.6) object. [AS 24/09/2010]
- Associated publications
- Illustrated in colour as Figure 8.11 on page 144 of 'Later Holocene Africa' by Paul Lane, in World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: A Characterization, edited by Dan Hicks and Alice Stevenson (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2013), pp. 122-168. Caption (same page): 'Figure 8.11 Soapstone carving of a crocodile found at the Khami ruins, Zimbabwe by Henry Balfour on 3rd October 1905 (PRM accession number 1906.39.6).'. [MJD 04/06/2014] NB This caption is incorrect, as the object is recorded as from Mutare [Umtali], not the Khami Ruins. [Dan Hicks 20/10/2016]
Search terms: Figure, Animal Figure