awl
- Museum number
- Oc1901,1221.11
- Description
-
Large awl (pickooroonga) of bone with a sharp point.
- Production date
- 19thC(late)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 27.50 centimetres
-
Width: 1.80 centimetres
-
Depth: 1.20 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- 'Pickooroonga, (a large awl) made by grinding the end of a bone against a rough stone to bring it to a sharp point for piercing and widening holes in opossum skins, and for enlarging a hole in the nose; it was used also in making nets.’ [Notes written in 1901 by Robert Christison - from Ethdoc 903].
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1901
- Acquisition notes
- Christison acquired this collection of 20 objects from his Lammermoor station in Queensland’s Mitchell District. At the time he donated them to the British Museum, he described them as ‘Weapons of the Dalleburra tribe whose chief camping ground was round the waterhole Narkool on Lower Tower Hill Creek, which is the main source of the Thomson River, Queensland, Latitude 20o S longitude 144o E’ (Ethdoc 903).
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc1901,1221.11