Context (CMS Context)
Labels & inscriptions: A small label attached to the object reads '34.221' in black ink. A small copper label has 'C.391' punched on it.
Event Date 12/2/2014
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
[From catalogue card:] 'Long string of red shell currency made of clam shell disks strung together. It has a high polish. Ornamented at intervals with single shell disk slightly larger than the others. A few seed pods- halved- are introduced at the end.'
Event Date 12/2/2014
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
Two length of shell money tied together at the end and decorated with tassels of shell beads, a translucent green glass beads, seed pods and strips of woven European textile. The money is predominently of red spondylus shell beads.
Event Date 6/10/2015
Author: maa

Context (Analysis)
Strand of highly polished composite shell money. The bulk is red shell money with the raw material coinciding with beads of Chama pacifica from Langalanga. Many have the split pink-white cross-section. There are also interspersed white beads which have been integrated in an informal way; some appear to be Anadara while some are Conus, although stringing is too tight to get good shots of the faces. Towards the end of the strand there are alternating white and dark seed beads that are then connected and brought together by a hewn nacreous (Pinctada) disc with two bored holes. Below this, white Anadara beads, occasional large dark seed beads, and end to end strung Anadara beads finished with half split seeds and red fabric as is traditional in Malaita. The white (Anadara) beads below that nacreous discs are in 'lots' of discs that clearly came off the same original strand and were manufactured at the same time. A variety of original Anadara strands are represented by they are kept in lots within this artefact, rather than intermingled. Glass bead is 5.99mm width. Red beads range from 4.6mm to 5.8mm in diameter from a sample of 10.
Event Date 1/11/2017
Author: Katherine Szabo