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 MADE OF NATIVE TOROMIRO WOOD. TABLET IS DISCUSSED AND ILLUSTRATED IN THE USNM ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1889 (PP. 514, 520, 537). 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 (EXCEPT WHEN OUT ON LOAN TO METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 1984-1985). 3 PLASTER CASTS [A129773-1] MADE SHOWING BOTH REVERSE AND OBVERSE SIDES.
label: Notes
content: This rongorongo tablet or board is sometimes referred to as the Atua Mata Riri tablet. It is also known as the Small Washington tablet. It is illus. Fig. 48, 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).
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: "No. 129,773: Illus. in USNM AR, 1889; Pl. 38 and 39 [after p. 520]. Translation on p. 520; note on p. 537. Description of acquisition on Easter Island p. 514. Cast made and sent to Musee d' Ethnographic [sic, should be Musee d' Ethnographie, Paris], May, 1933. Loaned to Metropolitan Museum of Art 8-1-84. Returned from Metropolitan Museum of Art 10-4-1985."
label: Notes
content: See 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. 299-308.
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: A129773-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Tablet
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 24.1 cm
label: Weight - Object
content: 187.5 g