| Coordinates WGS84 | 11°22'S, 132°09'E -11.36, 132.15 |
BM_Oc1939_08_23
Title: A message stick from Northern Territory held in the British Museum
Description: Tally stick made of wood with incised lines marked off in tens. Flat.
Date Created: 1912
Notes on date created: terminus ante quem; 1900-1912 (circa)
Item type: message stick in a collection
Subtype: traditional
State/Territory: NT
Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Wurrugu Austlang: N37 - Wurrugu Glottolog: wurr1238
Notes on linguistic areas: The message stick is associated with Port Essington, Northern Territory (Australia)
Cultural region: TopEnd_cobourg
Dimension 1: 330mm Dimension 2: 17mm Dimension 3: 8mm
Materials: wood
Techniques: incised
Source types: museum collection
Date collected: Acquisition date: 1939
Institution/Holder file: The British Museum object identifier: Oc1939,08.23
Collector: Donated by: Gregory M Mathews Field Collection by: John P Rogers Acquisition notes: "Register reads, for collection Oc1939,08: Collected by H P Rogers, ornithologist, before 1914, in Australia. However inspection of the original correspondence from Mathews reveals that this should be J P Rogers, who was Mathews' ornithological collector in Northern Australia."
Coordinates: 11°21'49.701600"S,132°08'50.100000"E (-11.363806, 132.14725)
Media copyright: The British Museum British Museum Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Notes on coordinates: Approximate coordinates for Port Essington (at a point near the Victoria settlement)
IRN: EOC19006
Notes: Note that, per the BM description, the lines really are marked off in tens. Would be worth investigating the Wurugu number system and learning more about the origin of this object. Compare BM_Oc1939_08_24 Here is his bio at the BM: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG127720 30.11.23 NR: checked against BM online catalogue.
Media Files:
Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup, Piers Kelly, Nitzan Rotman