MOA’S EGG UNEARTHED
Discovery Near Wairau Bar By Telegraph— Press Association. BLENHEIM, January 25. Chance digging among the remains of ancient Maori middens near the Wairau Bar recently unearthed an almost perfect specimen of a moa’s egg, about 9 inches long and six inches in diameter. It would make a valuable addition to the collection of any museum, and it is understood that those whose have possession of the egg intend communicating with the Dominion Museum in Wellington. Tn addition to the egg there was also found the skeleton of a Maori, round the neck of which was a curious bone neeklacje, comprising a pendant of a whale’d tooth and several bone articles which closely resembled ordinary cotton reels. The moa egg was placed near the feet of the skeleton, and In the bottom of the egg was a small hole which gives rise .to the theory that originally the shell was used as a water receptacle and was placed in the grave as part of tribal burial rites for the use of the spirit in after life.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19390126.2.48
Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 104, 26 January 1939, Page 10
Word Count
178MOA’S EGG UNEARTHED Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 104, 26 January 1939, Page 10
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