Object Details
- Collector
- Maj. William J. Thomson
- Donor Name
- U.S. Department of the Navy
- Expedition
- Mohican Survey of Easter Island
- Vessel
- U.S.S. Mohican
- Note re photos: Neg. #s 2000-10620 and 21 are view of front of head. Neg. #s 2000-10622 and 23 are view of right profile. Neg. #s 2000-10624 and 25 are view of left profile. According to the Easter Island Statue Project, this head of a stone figure (moai) was collected for the Smithsonian in 1886 from a rare inland ceremonial site called "Ahu O'Pepe". It is carved of consolidated volcanic ash or volcanic tuff (from the quarry Rano Raraku). This moai is Easter Island Statue Project reference # SI-WDC-002. See pp. 27-28 in "Changing Faces: Rapa Nui Statues in the Social Landscape" by Jo Anne Van Tilburg, in Splendid Isolation: Art of Easter Island by Eric Kjelgren, Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, 2001. Head is also illus. in Fig. 1, p. 43 of the same book and discussed on p. 42.
- Record Last Modified
- 7 Jul 2021
- Specimen Count
- 1
- Accession Date
- 4 May 1887
- Collection Date
- 18 Dec 1886 to 31 Dec 1886
- Accession Number
- 019025
- USNM Number
- E128370-0
- Object Type
- Figure
- Length - Object
- 1 m
- Width - Object
- 1 m
- Height - Object
- 0.69 m
- 119.4 cm
- Place
- Ahu O'Pepe, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Chile, Polynesia
- See more items in
- Anthropology
- NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
- Topic
- Ethnology
- Record ID
- nmnhanthropology_8334981
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/349a0dd3e-0c71-42b1-9ed3-d2631e32968a
