fish-hook(makau)
- Museum number
- Oc,VAN.322.c
- Description
-
Composite makau (fish-hook) made of bone, and attached to an aho (line) made of dark twisted fibre.
The hook is made of two pieces of bone respectively forming a shank and a point, each indented and having a small knob in the lower section. Both parts are tied together with fibre bast and with twisted fibre (olonā), which are coiled over two wooden wedges, one on each side, used at tighteners.
The shank is straight, with a knob in the upper section, around which twisted fibre is coiled to form a kaʻa (snood) connecting to hook to the line.
The point is slightly curved in, and has an inner barb.
The number "51" is handwritten onto the shank, in black ink.
- Production date
- 18thC (?)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 14 centimetres
-
Width: 5.75 centimetres
-
Depth: 1.50 centimetres
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1891
- Acquisition notes
- Historical registration slip, possibly written in 1891 (?), reads:
"Hawaii
Three fish hooks of white bone in two longitudinal parts, the butts of which are in the same straight line. The longer & straighter part forming the shank has in each case a small lateral projection at the end serving to hold the whipping of fine flax cord from which issues a piece of stout two-stranded line, in two cases with an outer binding upon it. Both shank & hook are laterally indented at equal distances from the butts to receive a broad transverse binding of fine flax thread kept away from the bone on both sides by ? plugs of wood: in one case the binding is blackened. The butts below this binding are thin & of rectangular section. The shanks & hooks being of oval section. All the hooks are slightly curved inwards and have a single barb on the inner side cut from the solid.
Fish hook"
It is unclear when the letter parting (.c) was associated with this particular fish-hook, which was recorded under the number VAN.322 alongside 2 other hooks. Digital records for this group of objects were parted 04/2021. [AC, 04/2021]
Said to have been collected on George Vancouver's voyage to Hawaiʻi and the NW coast of North America 1791-1795. "VAN" prefix in the object number suggests a possible association with this collection. [AC, 04/2021]
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc,VAN.322.c
- Additional IDs
-
CDMS number: Oc1891C25.322a-c (old CDMS no.)
-
Miscellaneous number: M.S. Cat.51 (said to be from the "Hewett Catalogue")