Necklace Fragment
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1858
label: Collection Date
content: 1838 to 1842
name: label: Donor Name
content: United States Exploring Expedition
notes: label: Notes
content: SEVENTEEN SMALL WHITE SHELL DISKS WITH HOLES DRILLED IN THE CENTER AND ATTACHED, EDGE TO EDGE, BY A TWO-PLY VEGETABLE FIBER CORD. AN OLD EXHIBIT LABEL READS, "SMALL DISKS OF SHELL WAMPUM [sic, shell beads] STRUNG HORIZONTALLY, EDGE TO EDGE, 8 INCHES LONG, DISK DIAM 5/16 INCH." SOME OF THIS NECKLACE HAS BEEN LOST.
label: Notes
content: Peale catalogue identifies this (in Spanish) as "Adorno pa [may be abbreviation for "para"?] la garganta de los pici (Necklace)". Adorno = ornament; para = for; garganta = throat; de = of; los = the (plural form, indicating the noun following is plural). It is unclear what the meaning of the word "pici" is, as to whether is is a native name or other term, or a mistranscription of a Spanish word. One speculation is that since the necklace is made from shell beads, pici might be "pisci" i.e. the word for fish in Italian, from piscis, the Latin word for "fish". "Pisci" is also a combining form meaning “fish,” used in the formation of compound words like pisciculture. This object seems to be included under the heading in the Peale catalogue of "Native manufactures from St Francisco [San Franciso Mission] California. Presented by Padre Quijas" (presumably Father Jose Lorenzo Quijas). The use of Spanish in the description seems to be confirmation of that.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 19 May 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: California, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 66A00050
label: USNM Number
content: E2707-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Necklace
physicalDescription: label: Height - Object
content: 0.25 cm
label: Diameter - Object
content: 0.7 cm
label: Length - Object
content: 20 cm
label: Diameter - Disk
content: 0.3366 cm