AN ANCIENT BOWL

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 924, 17 September 1910, Page 12

AN ANCIENT BOWL

A THEORY UPSET.,

: About ; forty-two years ago a strange stone bowl was discovered near an Old' pah;'in .some' standing bush at Waipu. There'has been a certain /.amount' of speculation to its probable history arid origin. Lately it was taken"by its' owner, Jlr. MTjennan, of Waipu, to Auckland, and it has now been forwarded to Mr. A. Hamilton, JJireetoi »f tbe Dominion Milseum,- for examination.. They bowl is hollowed out 'of a piece of sandstone, light .brown in colour,' and very, hard, It is about a foot long, eight, ana'a half .inches wide, and ,six Inches, deep, and weighs some twenty pounds. • It was. supposed that carvings on the bowl boro sopie resemblance to the Moriori patterns which 'may be. seen on the >karaka trees at the Chatham 'Islands, and this • was taken as suggesting that; it':had• been wrought at a very early period._ Mi. Hamilton; having examined the . carving, points out, however, that the. curious nature of its lines is simply a result of the worker who. made the bowl not having carried out his. intentions';as to its decoration.- : The. lines : which - appear vvould, when finished,- ih'ave represented two supporting figures,' one at each-end of/the bowl, in the same manner as is frequently seen in -wooden carved bowls, especially those made -at Eotoriia, and called"kumetes." The artist had. evidently been interrupted by, death or some other cause at the point when ha had hollowed'.out the bowl, and had started the. carving. The hollow in the hard stone of which the bowl is composed is very well finished, and' must have_ involved/ a laborious task . -A'.ltii tht» • ordinary stone tools. The purpose for which the bowl •iras intended by its /Maori artificer is doubtful, but probably it was used in preparing Hinan berries from which a kind of meal was made, and afterwards baked into calces. ' There were, on- the other hand, many purposes to which small stone bowls were put, such as holding greas© and oil for sinall tjuantities of red-paint used in decoration, or latooing paint. Curious holes which pierce tbe bowl are not artificial, but have been made in the stone by boringvrorm6. ' There are in 'the Dominion Museum : about a dozen or more bowls of similar character. -v ...