AWANUI'S CARVED SLAB.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19608, 9 April 1927, Page 13

AWANUI'S CARVED SLAB.

AN IMPORTANT ACQUISITION.

" WORTH THINKING ABOUT."

"Probably as important as the famous lintel find in the same district," was the opinion Dr. P. H. Buck gave yesterday of the large slab of mysteriously carved wood found at Awanui recently by Mr. George Evans, and now housed in the Auckland Museum.

The lintel carving, also in the museum, has been the subject of much speculation. That it was not of Maori origin is clearly indicated, according to Dr. Buck, by the fact that the wood is carved on both sides, which was never typical of Maori carvings, all of which were in front of the building and had therefore not to be seen from both sides. It is said to be similar to carvings that surmount burial places in Borneo. "This carving 13 certainly un-Maori," remarked Dr. Buck yesterday when members of the Auckland Institute were examining Mr. Evans' find, "but whether it is pre-Maoi'i it is impossible to say at present." The lintel exhibit in the museum is described as "probably preMaori."

Observers were greatly interested in the bird figuring of the carvings which, in the three-finger design, show one similarity to Maori work. That scheme however is noticed in the carvings of many races. An especially mysterious feature of the slab is a group of square holes at the back. While the very superficial speculation possible at present suggests • the possibility of thf> carving being the work of either a pre-Maori people or of a tribe that spent a short sojourn in the district until their migration or annihilation, the slab was regarded as requiring a much deeper investigation. "It is quite worth thinking about," was the way Dr. Buck expressed it.