Put Egg Together

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31118, 22 July 1966, Page 1

Put Egg Together

“Admiration for the initiative, patience, and skill” of Brian Ailingham, a fifth-form pupil at the Christchurch Boys’ High School, who found, collected and reconstructed more than 360 fragments of a shattered moa egg, discovered it to be a rare moa-egg water bottle, and deposited it in the Canterbury Museum, was expressed by the Museum Trust Board yesterday. Brian Allingham found the moa-hunter article in sand dunes near the estuary of the Pleasant river in North Otago while he was on holiday in January. He recovered dozens of bones of the more common moa and then the egg-shell fragments, many less

than a quarter of an inch long.

After an estimated 350 hours sorting and fitting, he reconstructed most of the egg to show that it was more than eight inches long and about six inches in diameter. A circular hole in one end showed it had been used as a water “bottle.”

After the holiday, Brian Allingham reported his finds to the museum which enrolled him in its Archaeological Society, and gave him some guidance.

The , director (Dr. Roger Duff) said Brian Allingham spontaneously offered to deposit the egg and other moa remains of interest in the museum.