Adze
date: label: Accession Date
content: 15 Jun 1875
label: Collection Date
content: 1874 to 1875
name: label: Collector
content: Transit Of Venus Expedition
label: Donor Name
content: Transit Of Venus Expedition
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "FROM A PIT EXCAVATED IN GRAVELS. LARGE ELONGATED, MASSIVE, TANGED QUADRANGULAR ADZE OF HARD, COARSE-GRAINED, GREEN-GRAY METAMORPHOSED PALEOZOIC GREYWACKE. ENTIRE SURFACE BRUISED. EVEN CURVATURE LONGITUDINALLY OF ALL SURFACES FROM MAXIMUM DIMENSION A CENTRAL POSITION TO POLL AND CUTTING EDGE EXTREMITIES. CROSS-SECTION FORMS A "ROUNDED RECTANGLE". P.T.O. INVENTORIED 1975. PROMINENT BUTT-SHOULDER AND BLADE-BEVEL SHOULDER. THIS ADZE IS A UNIQUE SPECIMEN IN THAT IT IS THE LARGEST AND HEAVIEST OF THIS TYPE ON RECORD. IT FALLS INTO A RESTRICTED GROUP OF ADZES KNOWN ONLY FROM THE SOUTHERN REGIONS OF THE SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND. DUFF, 1950, 1959 CLASSES THESE ARTIFACTS AS TYPE I, VARIETY D, IN HIS ADZE CLASSIFICATION. THESE ADZES ARE CHARACTERISED BY THEIR HUGE SIZE, BUTT SHOULDER AND BLADE BEVEL SHOULDER PROTRUBERANCES, ROUNDED-RECTANGULAR CROSS-SECTION, AND RESTRICTED GEOGRAPHIC RANGE."
label: Notes
content: Illus. Pl. 5, e - g, and described p. 23 in Keyes, Ian W. 1967. New Zealand Artifacts from the United States "Transit of Venus Expedition," 1874-1875. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. In Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, 2 (2). https://doi.org/10.5479/si.00810223.2.2.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 23 Apr 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Wakatipu Lake, Frankton Arm, South Island (Te Waipounamu) / Otago, New Zealand (Aotearoa), Polynesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Maori, Waitaha
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 003939
label: USNM Number
content: E21231-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Adze
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 48.8 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 7.9 cm