Description (Labels & Markings)
A small metal label attached to the object reads '1920.594' in white ink. A small label attached to the object reads 'Solomon 16' on one side and 'Mala' on the other in pencil. Another small label reads: '?Guadalcanar / cf Man / 1908 p.81'.
Event Date
Author: maa

Context (Analysis)
Woodford writes: 'Bead Money from Guadalcanar - There is a very scarce kind of bead-money from Guadalcanar (P1. F, 3), which used to be made by the bush natives inhabiting the centre of the island in the neighbourhood of Tatuve. It is not now made, and the old bush chief, Sulakava, from whom I obtained my specimens, could not tell me what the material was. It consists of coarse, black, irregularly sized discs, but whether it is made of shell, or the shell of a nut, or of some kind of mineral, my informant was unable to say, and after examination I am equally at a loss to determine. Half a fathom of it is called Kurina; one fathom is called Paku (Woodford, Charles. 1908. Notes on the Manufacture of the Malaita Shell Bead Money of the Solomon Group. Man (Vol.8.), pp.81-84.
Event Date 1908
Author: Lucie Carreau

Description (CMS Description)
[From catalogue card:] 'Strings of shell beads used as currency.'
Event Date 5/11/2007
Author: maa

Description (Physical description)
Five lengths of money strung on a vegetable fibre cord and tied at one end. Poor condition - broken in many places and precariously re-attached. Possibly turtle-shell as light shines through.
Event Date 6/10/2015
Author: maa

Context (Analysis)
Pacific Presences research fellow, Dr Kat Szabo, confirmed that the beads are not shell. While the texture appears fibrous, the fact that the light shines through suggests that it could indeed be turtle-shell.
Event Date 3/11/2017
Author: Lucie Carreau

Context (Found together / assemblage)
The short string recorded as Z 32128 was probably originally part of 1920.594.
Event Date 3/11/2017
Author: Lucie Carreau