Inscribed Wooden Tablet
date: label: Accession Date
content: 19 Apr 1890
label: Collection Date
content: 18 Dec 1886 to 31 Dec 1886
name: label: Collector
content: Maj. William J. Thomson
label: Donor Name
content: U. S. Department of the Navy
label: Expedition
content: Mohican Survey of Easter Island
label: Vessel
content: U.S.S. Mohican
notes: label: Notes
content: INSCRIBED WOODEN TABLET OBTAINED BY W. J. THOMSON, PAYMASTER OF THE U.S. NAVY SHIP 'MOHICAN' IN EASTER ISLAND, DECEMBER 1886. TABLET WAS PURCHASED FROM MR. A. A. SALMON [a.k.a. Tati Salmon], A EUROPEAN SETTLER AND LONG-TIME RESIDENT OF EASTER ISLAND. THOMSON STATES TABLET "IS A PIECE OF DRIFTWOOD THAT FROM ITS PECULIAR SHAPE IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN USED AS A PORTION OF A CANOE" (USNM ANNUAL REPORT 1889:514) TRANSFERRED FROM ETHNOLOGY TO ARCHEOLOGY ON MAY 2, 1933. FORMERLY ON EXHIBIT NMNH HALL 8, PACIFIC CULTURES HALL, CASE/UNIT 4 "EASTER ISLAND" FROM 1962 TO 2005. THREE PLASTER CASTS [A129774-1] MADE SHOWING BOTH REVERSE AND OBVERSE SIDES.
label: Notes
content: This rongorongo tablet or board is illus. Fig. 49, p. 76, in "Splendid Isolation: Art of Easter Island" by Eric Kjellgren, Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, 2001, and identified there as an inscribed tablet (kohau rongorongo). It is known as the Great or Large Washington tablet.
label: Notes
content: From card for 129773-4: "Engraved with shark's tooth. Transferred to Div. Archeology May 2, 1933." From second card formerly in Ethnology card file: "See USNM - AR 1889 Plate 40-41 [after p. 524]. Translation on p. 523; note on p. 537. Description of acquisition on p. 514. Cast made and sent to Musee d' Ethnographic [sic, should be Musee d' Ethnographie, Paris], May, 1933."
label: Notes
content: For an article on this tablet, with illustrations, see: Horley, Paul, 2013, "The large rongorongo tablet from the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C." Rapa Nui Journal, 27(1): 37-61. See also Kaeppler, Adrienne. 2001. "A Photograph is Worth A Thousand Words" in Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Easter Island and the Pacific. Christopher M. Stevenson, et. al, eds. See Horley, Paul. 2021. Rongorongo: Inscribed Objects from Rapa Nui. Viña del Mar, Chile: Rapanui Press; in particular see pp. 309-325.
label: Notes
content: Microscopic wood identification done by Melvin (Mel) J. Wachowiak, Jr. of Smithsonian Conservation Analytical Laboratory (now Museum Conservation Institute) 1992. Wood identified as Spruce, Family Pinaceae, Genus Picea.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 17 Nov 2023
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Chile, Polynesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Archaeology
culture: label: Culture
content: Rapanui (Easter Islander)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 023098
label: USNM Number
content: A129774-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Tablet
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 62.9 cm
label: Weight - Object
content: 430 g