Pre-contact Maori whalebone club

Ron Anderson · 12th September 2010, 09:42 AM

I am increasingly of the opinion that it is incorrect to assume that concentric circles are outside the capability of pre-contact indians on the West Coast. Or that the craft evident in creating this club must come with the help of European tools.

This flies in the face of everything I know about ancient artefacts. And it flies in the face of the facts I've been able to glean on the tools used by NW American people.

In fact, today I was lucky enough to come across a great reference book – Indian & Eskimo Artifacts of North America. I will scan some of the tools highlighted in it when I can. These include prehistoric "drill flywheels" located in central California.

There are an endless array of Indian and Eskimo pre-contact tools pictured that boggle the mind with their innovation and sophistication, including bow drills, which would have been an incredibly effective and accurate instrument in the hands of any skilled artisan. Certainly, I do not see simple concentric circles as much of a challenge.

More than that, as a collector of middle eastern antiquities, I keep thinking of the incredibly artwork I've encountered in pre-industrial societies, including the Sumerians of circa 2500 BC. Particularly, the unbelievable artwork of cylinder seals, where the images were drilled into the much more difficult medium of rock and stone. These images were initially composed of –what else – circles, and then became more intricate and detailed during the second millennium BC. The drills they used weren't much different from the tools available to native Americans. Largely stone tools

These guys didn't have a Black & Decker.

In fact, I'd suggest we couldn't achieve the same result with our modern tools.

Please remember that whale bone is a much more benign material to work with than steatite, marble or lapis lazuli!

The more you investigate the notion, the more absurd it seems that we can't credit "pre-contact" cultures with that level of artistry. On top of this, we have the evidence of those line drawings, which show concentric circles all the way up the body of some of the clubs. Those line drawings almost certainly hail from early contacts with the culture concerned. I would not be surprised if they from the Captain Cook era, or shortly afterwards. At the very least, they were created before the invention of the camera, by someone who paid close attention to detail.

That said, I think the discussion has been valuable, so thanks everyone for your opinions.

Additional photos of the item will follow this post. I hope they are better, but I'm not much of a photographer.

I will publish scans and photos of tools as soon as I can.

Regards
Ron

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12th September 2010, 09:42 AM	#32
Ron Anderson Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Sydney Australia Posts: 228	I am increasingly of the opinion that it is incorrect to assume that concentric circles are outside the capability of pre-contact indians on the West Coast. Or that the craft evident in creating this club must come with the help of European tools. This flies in the face of everything I know about ancient artefacts. And it flies in the face of the facts I've been able to glean on the tools used by NW American people. In fact, today I was lucky enough to come across a great reference book – Indian & Eskimo Artifacts of North America. I will scan some of the tools highlighted in it when I can. These include *prehistoric* "drill flywheels" located in central California. There are an endless array of Indian and Eskimo pre-contact tools pictured that boggle the mind with their innovation and sophistication, including bow drills, which would have been an incredibly effective and accurate instrument in the hands of any skilled artisan. Certainly, I do not see simple concentric circles as much of a challenge. More than that, as a collector of middle eastern antiquities, I keep thinking of the incredibly artwork I've encountered in pre-industrial societies, including the Sumerians of circa 2500 BC. Particularly, the unbelievable artwork of cylinder seals, where the images were drilled into the much more difficult medium of rock and stone. These images were initially composed of –what else – circles, and then became more intricate and detailed during the second millennium BC. The drills they used weren't much different from the tools available to native Americans. Largely stone tools These guys didn't have a Black & Decker. In fact, I'd suggest we couldn't achieve the same result with our modern tools. Please remember that whale bone is a much more benign material to work with than steatite, marble or lapis lazuli! The more you investigate the notion, the more absurd it seems that we can't credit "pre-contact" cultures with that level of artistry. On top of this, we have the evidence of those line drawings, which show concentric circles all the way up the body of some of the clubs. Those line drawings almost certainly hail from early contacts with the culture concerned. I would not be surprised if they from the Captain Cook era, or shortly afterwards. At the very least, they were created before the invention of the camera, by someone who paid close attention to detail. That said, I think the discussion has been valuable, so thanks everyone for your opinions. Additional photos of the item will follow this post. I hope they are better, but I'm not much of a photographer. I will publish scans and photos of tools as soon as I can. Regards Ron