101: Archaic style 'tiki' (pendant)
First of all, the Polynesian version of what we call tiki are stone statues. Where the notion to carve them as pendants came from, no one knows. But the styles are similar to the stone versions in Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands.
The pendant 'tiki' shown below is one of a kind. It is small (only 50mm long and only 6mm thick), and it is unique in both design and material. For it is made out of shell.
But it is also small because the shell type is a type of dog cockle which is a common type worldwide. The type used is endemic to NZ. Therefore that restricts the size possible. Below is the location of where this item was found and the type of shell used to make the amulet.
Click on each picture for a larger view. The location is quite special and you can see why early explorers would have found this place quite spiritual or mystical, especially with the concretions and razor back scenes.
The item in question was found in April 1957 on the Wairarapa Coast just south of the Honeycomb Rock on Glenburn Station. It was found in a hollow in a dune about 400m from the shoreline and accompanied by human bone fragments. It has patterns carved into the surface, many of which who have worn away. There is no other shell tiki and it is a very archaic type that is totally unique in its style which, based on its date of 1100-1300 is something alike to the stone tiki of the Marquesas. It was probably hung upside down as where they may have occurred is worn away at the feet. There would be no other hole by which to hang it.
There are few upright versions in NZ, however they are of Pounamu (shown below) and of some 300 years later. The first two are the one that accompanied the Te Maori exhibition that went to NYC in 1984. The second was carved around 1750 with no explanation as to why it is upright as that style went out of use around 1400.
So who carved this shell tiki, and why is it in Marquesan style? Did they come from there or saw a stone tiki brought here by some early Marquesan seafarers? (after all Maori tell us they supposedly brought things with them such as Te Uenuku and the Korotangi bird). I guess even if we find the tall skeletons we seek, it still wont reveal an overall picture of the ancient pre-Polynesian history of this land - only of one small group of extraordinarily tall people.
But this tiki is remarkable and in my mind as unique as the Okehu tribrach, the Waitotara pendant, the Okia godstick or the Pouto Pou.
