Stone Adze And Wooden Adze Haft Handle
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 FOR ADZE: "FROM A PIT EXCAVATED IN GRAVELS. QUADRANGULAR TANGED ADZE OF DARK, COARSE-GRAINED METAMORPHOSED GREYWACKE. POSTERIOR AND ANTERIOR SURFACES LONGITUDINALLY AND TRANSVERSELY CONVEX. FLATTENED TAPERING TANG 76 MM IN LENGTH, FORMED FROM REDUCTION ON ANTERIOR SURFACE. POLL WIDTH GREATER THAN THICKNESS. SPECIMEN IN A HAFTED CONDITION WAS FIGD. BY BUCK, 1950, P. 185, FIG. 37 B, IN SKETCH DRAWING. REFER TO NEXT CARD FOR THE HANDLE THAT WENT WITH THIS." FROM CARD FOR WOODEN ADZE HAFT HANDLE: "SPECIMEN GROOVED AT TOE TO RECESS LASHING. HANDLE CURVED. SKETCHED WITH ATTACHED STONE ADZE AND FIGURED BY BUCK, 1950, P.185, FIG. 37B, AS EXAMPLE OF ADZE HAFTING. (REFER TO CATALOGUE CARD NO. 21228X FOR PARTICULARS ON THIS AND TWO OTHER ASSOCIATED ADZE HAFTS.)"
label: Notes
content: FROM CARD FOR E21228, RELATED TO ADZE HAFT HANDLE: "THREE ADZE HAFTS WERE OBTAINED BY THE TRANSIT OF VENUS EXPEDITION FROM RIVERTON. (NOS. 21228A, 21229A, 21235A). IT IS APPARENT, NOT ONLY BY THEIR EXCELLENT STATE OF PRESERVATION, BUT BY THE REMAINS OF AN OLD LABEL. P.T.O. ATTACHED TO ONE SPECIMEN, THAT THEY WERE "PRESENTED" TO THE EXPEDITION, POSSIBLY FROM THE T. DANIELS PRIVATE COLLECTION. THEY ORIGINALLY ENTERED THE SMITHSONIAN COLLECTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THREE ADZES FROM LAKE WAKATIPU, BUT THIS ASSOCIATION HOWEVER IS ENTIRELY FORTUITOUS. THE HAFTS CAN BE CONSIDERED TO BE OF LATE MANUFACTURE, FOR THEY EXHIBIT DEFINITE WORKING BY METAL TOOLS. THEY ARE OF LIGHT WEIGHT AND WERE PROBABLY DESIGNED FOR HAFTING NARROW FLAT IRON BLADES. THE LETTER X IS APPENDED AFTER EACH SPECIMEN CATALOGUE NUMBER TO DISASSOCIATE THEM FROM THE ADZES WITH WHICH THEY WERE ASSOCIATED WHEN THEY WERE ORIGINALLY CATALOGUED."
label: Notes
content: Adze is from Waitaha people, Lake Wakatipu, Frankton Arm, Otago, South Island. Adze handle is Maori, from Riverton, Southland, South Island.
label: Notes
content: Stone adze illus. Pl. 6, a,b, 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: Notes
content: The Wa'a Project, established by Joshua Bell, Curator of Globalization (NMNH), included a Recovering Voices Community Research Visit June 16-27, 2018. The visit brought master and apprentice Hawaiian and Māori canoe carvers and builders to study E164016-0, a historic Hawaiian wa'a (canoe). The group included: Raymond Bumatay, master Hawaiian canoe carver; Alexander 'Alika' Bumatay, master Hawaiian canoe carver; James Eruera, master Māori canoe carver; Bryce Motu, apprentice Māori canoe carver; Leslie 'Les' Matiu (O'Connor), apprentice Māori canoe carver; Kālewa Correa, Curator of Hawai'i and the Pacific at Smithsonian's APAC; Alexis Ching, apprentice Hawaiian canoe carver and documentary book maker; Dino Morrow, documentary photographer; Shannon Hennessey, APAC intern. James Eruera noted that the proportions of adze blade to handle to lashing are not right on this adze.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 23 Apr 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Wakatipu Lake, Frankton Arm / Riverton, South Island (Te Waipounamu) / Otago / Southland, New Zealand (Aotearoa), Polynesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Maori, Waitaha
label: Culture
content: Maori
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: E21229-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Adze
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 24.1 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 5.7 cm