STRANGE CARVING

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 16, 9 April 1927, Page 10

STRANGE CARVING

THE AWANUI FIND PROBABLY PRE-MAORI “Probably as important as the famous lintel find,” was the opinion given by Dr. P. H. Buck when asked his opinion as to the value of a large slab of mysteriously carved wood found rec ently by Mr. George Evans at Awanui, and now housed in the Auckland Museum. This carving, like the lintel carving, is of uncertain origin. It is certainly not the work of Maoris, as it is carved on both sides, which was never typical of Maori carvings, all of which were in the front of buildings and therefore both sides were not seen. It is said to be similar to carvings that surmount burial places in Borneo. Observers were greatly interested in the bird-like carvings which, in the three-finger design, show one similarity to Maori work. That scheme, however, is noticed in the carvings of many races. An especially mysterious feature of the slab is a group of square holes at the back. While the very superficial speculation possible at present suggests the possibility of the carving being the work of either a pre-Maori people or of a tribe that spent a short sojourn in the district until their migration or annihilation, the slab was regarded as requiring a much deeper investigation. “It is quite worth thinking about,” was the way Dr. Buck expressed it.