47: Another unusual artefact

The Canterbury Museum acquired the Frances Ryman Collection in an auction held by Webb’s auction house on Thursday 24 September 2009. The collection of over 60 taonga Maori from Matariki Point on the north bank of the Clarence River, was excavated by Frances Ryman during the 1960s with the professional guidance of Dr Roger Duff, Director of Canterbury Museum. Frances Ryman gained permission from the farm owner to carry out archaeological work on the site before the area was to be ploughed, however once the cultural significance of the site was established ploughing did not go ahead.

Fashioned from soapstone, this amulet is described as an abstract human form drilled to be hung around the neck on a cord. The drilled hole has worn away, and it has to be said that the face of this amulet, notably in the formation of the nose and jaw, is perhaps more like that of an animal than a human. The simplified body relates to that of the human form however. These kinds of amulets have been associated with the d'Urville Island, and top of the South Island regions and relate back strongly to East Polynesian applied art. There is a comparable amulet in the Nelson Provincial Museum, associated with a site at Patuki on d'Urville Island, found by Jim Eyles (1978). In his book (2007), he describes it as being made of talc. It is a similar abstract human form, in that it the upper section is a head with a human face, attached to an abbreviated torso, with stylized buttocks, knee, and upper thigh.One other related piece (from the Hornsey Collection) is illustrated in H. D.Skinner's 1935 publication. That example has an almost a bird-like face. Skinner noted a relationship between the bird-headed human figures, and lizard amulets found in New Zealand, and those found on Easter Island, and in the carving of the Marquesas.

Original newspaper clipping of it's discovery...