Pendant

Before 1877

Details

Title: Pendant
Date Created: Before 1877
Location Created: New Zealand
Physical Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.9 cm
External Link: Penn Museum online collection
Medium: Greenstone
Object Number: P2317
Descriptive Note: Greenstone pendant. Hei tiki. Human figure with oversized head tilted to one side, arms akimbo, legs flexed, feet together. Pierced at top for suspension cord. Said to have been collected on Captain Cook's third voyage, in 1777, by Midshipman Burr of H.M.S. "Discovery." Hei tiki were, and are, treasured Maori ornaments. Their value derives from the hours of labor required to carve the hard material and from association with the ancestors through whose hands the carvings have passed, from generation to generation.
Culture: Maori
Credit Line: Purchased from W. O. Oldman; Subscription of Herbert L. Clark in memory of Edward W. Clark, 1911

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