Sidestep: An unusual stone object

Mr. L. J. B. Chapple, of Wanganui, describes as follows an unusual object in stone which recently came into his possession in 1937:

A flat, oval piece of scoria, averaging 40 mm. in thickness, greatest width 164 mm., greatest length 235 mm. It has been fractured at the narrow end, the measurement across the fracture being 82 mm. On one face it is evenly grooved latitudinally to an average depth of 4 mm., the distance from ridge to ridge averaging 17 mm.; number of grooves, 14.

On the other side, which shows signs of wear, there are fourteen latitudinal grooves, intersected at right angles by seven longitudinal grooves. The stone is ringed by a single deep groove. The object was found on the edge of bush which stretches down to the Mangawhero river, between Ohakune and Raetihi, and had obviously been turned up by rooting pigs. An authority to whom the matter has been referred suggests that the object may be an ornamented sinker for a hinaki or eel trap.

The design is much unlike anything normally seen on any form of sinker. The shape (pancake like, is also unlike any other form of sinker found.

He saw a somewhat similar piece long ago, he believes, in the Dominion Museum collection. Below is the one mentioned seen at the Dominion Museum, but it was dated at the late 1800's and it is round, not flat. We can't find the above object in current collections at this time.