| Coordinates WGS84 | 31°44'S, 116°04'E -31.74, 116.07 |
BM_Oc1896_1055
Title: A message stick from Western Australia held in the British Museum
Description: British Museum description: Message stick. A smooth baton of wood with knobs at each end. Engraved with irregularly-placed diamonds and other shapes and images. Near one end, three notches carved in. Also two dots carved in, with an engraved line underneath, enclosed with a line, creating what appears to be a face. Accompanying sketch: "West Australia. Message-stick of circular section with a raised rim at each end. It is covered with figures scratched in outline and filled in with dots. One one side are three notches, deeply cut. Swan River District. 25 miles from Perth.
Date Created: 1896
Notes on date created: terminus ante quem
Item type: message stick in a collection
State/Territory: WA
Notes on linguistic areas: The message stick is associated with Swan River District, Perth ('25 miles from Perth'), Western Australia
Dimension 1: 168mm Dimension 2: 11mm Dimension 3: 11mm
Materials: wood
Techniques: carved, engraved
Source types: museum collection
Date collected: Acquisition date: 1896
Institution/Holder file: The British Museum object identifier: Oc1896,-.1055
Collector: Purchased from: Dr Emile Clement Curator's comments: "Rectangular paper label with cut corners and printed text: 'W. Australia. C. F. 1 Sept 1896 (Clement)'."
Coordinates: 31°44'21.901200"S,116°04'3.698400"E (-31.739417, 116.067694)
Media copyright: The British Museum British Museum Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Notes on coordinates: Approximate point of the Swan River, around 40km (25 miles) from Perth, Western Australia, per Google maps
IRN: EOC29040
Notes: Additional IDs: Oc1896C3.1053-1057 (old CDMS no.) PK: No more images to request from BM. 4.12.23 NR: checked against BM online catalogue.
Media Files:
Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup, Nitzan Rotman