BM_Oc1939_08_24

Title: A message stick from Northern Territory held in the British Museum

Description: Tally stick made of wood. Square in section and marked in tens by notches at the angles.

Date Created: 1912

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem; 1900-1912 (circa)

Item type: message stick in a collection

Subtype: traditional_context

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: 385mm Dimension 2: 14mm Dimension 3: 14mm

Materials: wood

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: Acquisition date: 1939

Institution/Holder file: The British Museum object identifier: Oc1939,08.24

Collector: Donated by: Gregory M Mathews Field Collection by: John P Rogers Curator's comments: "Register 1939. Tally stick made of wood. Square in section and marked in tens by notches at the angles. Collected by H P Rogers, ornithologist, before 1914, in Australia. Port Essington." 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)

URL institution: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1645312&partId=1&searchText=message+stick&images=true&page=1

IRN: EOC81459

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_23 Here is his bio at the BM: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG127720 4.12.23 NR: checked against BM online catalogue.

Media Files:

Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup, Piers Kelly, Nitzan Rotman