Subject: ariki / rangatira warrior chief
Culture: Maori
Setting: Musket Wars, Aotearoa / North Island 1807-1830
Object: wakahuia treasure box
Brooklyn Museum > Oceania *
"Treasure Box (Wakahuia) Maori people; New Zealand, North Island, East Coast, Gisborne, 19th century Wood and fiber ...
Treasure boxes held small personal valuables, such as nephrite neck pendants (hei tiki), ear ornaments, and precious feathers. A fiber cord attached to each end and passed through the holes in the lid would have been used to suspend the box from the rafters of the owner's house. The heads on the sides that act as suspension lugs have bodies that continue onto the underside of the box because these boxes were primarily viewed from below."
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