{"id":"EXH2026-005","label":"Moriori carved whalebone blade","people_or_site":"Moriori (burial-ground find, Okawa)","country_current":"New Zealand (Chatham Islands)","historic_region":"Okawa near Kaingaroa, Chatham Island","macroregion":"Oceania / New Zealand","local_name":"","source_term":"bull-roarer (whale-bone)","source_language":"English","object_description":"Whalebone blade, exactly 6 in. by 1.75-2.75 in., honeycombed with decay; paired longitudinal grooves down each face, edges set with small ornamental notches; deep end-notch (probable cord hole) and side fastening-notches 'evidently to allow of secure tying'; found in an old Moriori burial-ground; figured Plate VI fig. 12.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"exhaustiveness2026","source_type":"archaeological_report","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/transactionsproc34newz","page_or_plate":"pp. 131-134, pl. VI fig. 12 | Skinner 1923 PlateVIII l and facing caption","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Okawa near Kaingaroa, NE Chatham Island (find spot)","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Among the things on a station hand’s table, a grooved piece of whalebone stopped Arthur Dendy short. It had come from an old Moriori burial ground near Okawa: six inches of carved bone, notched along the edges and honeycombed by age. Dendy recognised a bullroarer and made a working replica. Alexander Shand, who knew Moriori traditions, had never heard of the instrument; Dendy wondered whether it had been highly tapu. Its elaborate carving contrasted with the smooth Māori blades he knew, and he imagined a much older separation of the two peoples. Skinner later found no expected cord wear and favoured a pendant or toy; the decayed original was too fragile to test.","pull_quote":"The bone, which is represented in Plate VI., fig. 12, had evidently been carefully shaped and carved, and I had no difficulty in recognising in it a very typical example of that extremely interesting instrument of primitive races known to ethnologists as the \"bull-roarer.\"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Dendy 1901, \"On some Relics of the Moriori Race,\" Trans. N.Z. Inst. 34:131","term_gloss":"","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":true,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"f_archaeology":true,"archaeology_kind":"object","date_display":"c. AD 1400–1901","date_qualification":"Moriori horizon; object not directly dated.","date_basis":"broad_context","date_confidence":"low","date_citation":"exhaustiveness2026, Dendy 1901 pp. 131–134, pl. VI fig. 12; Te Ara, Chatham Islands: Early settlement; McFadgen 1994","sources":[{"citation":"Arthur Dendy, 'On some Relics of the Moriori Race,' Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 34 (1901), pp. 131-134 and pl. VI fig. 12; H. D. Skinner, The Morioris of Chatham Islands, Bishop Museum Memoirs 9(1) (1923), pl. VIII","url":"https://archive.org/details/transactionsproc34newz"}],"source_citations":"Arthur Dendy, 'On some Relics of the Moriori Race,' Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 34 (1901), pp. 131-134 and pl. VI fig. 12; H. D. Skinner, The Morioris of Chatham Islands, Bishop Museum Memoirs 9(1) (1923), pl. VIII","source_display":"Arthur Dendy, 'On some Relics of the Moriori Race,' Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 34 (1901), pp. 131-134 and pl. VI fig. 12; H. D. Skinner, The Morioris of Chatham Islands, Bishop Museum Memoirs 9(1) (1923), pl. VIII","date_citation_display":"Exhaustiveness 2026, Dendy 1901 pp. 131–134, pl. VI fig. 12; Te Ara, Chatham Islands: Early settlement; McFadgen 1994","object_display":"Whalebone blade, exactly 6 in. by 1.75-2.75 in., honeycombed with decay; paired longitudinal grooves down each face, edges set with small ornamental notches; deep end-notch (probable cord hole) and side fastening-notches 'evidently to allow of secure tying'; found in an old Moriori burial-ground; figured Plate VI fig. 12.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"moriori burial","display_name":"Moriori carved whalebone blade","image":{"full":"assets/objects/EXH2026-005_dendy1901_plVI_fig12.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/EXH2026-005_dendy1901_plVI_fig12_thumb.jpg","credit":"A. Dendy, Transactions of the N.Z. Institute 34 (1901), Plate VI fig. 12","license":"Public domain (published 1901)","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/transactionsproc34newz","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Dendy’s fig. 12: the grooved and notched Okawa whalebone blade.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/EXH2026-005.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/review_2026_10_03/EXH2026-005_whole_plate_thumb.jpg","alt":"Dendy’s plate of Moriori relics, with the broad carved bullroarer labeled fig. 12 near the lower center among several other objects.","credit":"A. Dendy, Transactions of the N.Z. Institute 34 (1901), Plate VI","license":"Public domain (published 1901)","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/transactionsproc34newz","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Dendy’s plate of Moriori relics; the bullroarer is fig. 12."}]},"slug":"exh2026-005-moriori-burial-ground-find-okawa"}