RHH1918P19F2

Title: Sketch of a message stick from Queensland by Hamlyn-Harris (1918)

Description: Sketch of message stick on p.19 of "On messages and "Message Sticks" employed among the Queensland Aborigines" by R. Hamlyn-Harris: "This stick has 37 notches on each side. Both surfaces are marked with extreme care, the small hole having been made with either shell or stone drills. On the obverse side three club shields are well defined, with a varying number of short double marks over each shield. On the reverse, there are three boomerangs with one double mark inside each boomerang. Message unknown."

Date Created: 1918

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem

Item type: image of a message stick (artefact missing)

State/Territory: QLD

Notes on linguistic areas: The message stick is associated with the Burdekin River, Queensland

Dimension 1: 140mm Dimension 2: 17mm

Materials: ironbark

Sources:

Hamlyn Harris, R. 1918. “On messages and ‘message sticks’ employed among the Queensland Aborigines.”

Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 6:13-36.

Coordinates: 19°46'50.901600"S,146°01'0.598800"E  (-19.780806, 146.016833)

Notes on coordinates: Approximate mid point of Burdekin River, per Google maps

URL source 1: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/47577#page/51/mode/1up

Media Files:

Data Entry: Julia Bespamyatnykh, Nitzan Rotman