WILLIAM HUNTER AND CAPTAIN COOK The 18th Century Ethnographical Collection in the Hunterian Museum
Summary ‘First contact’ artefacts collected from aboriginal peoples by the early European explorers are now valuable in providing the only direct evidence for recent ‘Stone Age’ technologies which no longer exist. During the J770's Dr William Hunter collected many such artefacts for his private...
| Published in: | Glasgow Archaeological Journal |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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Edinburgh University Press
1985
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/gas.1985.12.12.1 |
| Summary: | Summary ‘First contact’ artefacts collected from aboriginal peoples by the early European explorers are now valuable in providing the only direct evidence for recent ‘Stone Age’ technologies which no longer exist. During the J770's Dr William Hunter collected many such artefacts for his private museum; most originated in the Pacific and in North America and had been collected by people who sailed with Captain James Cook. Since 1978 it has been possible to re-identify most of this early ethnographical material and to separate itfrom later acquisitions. To emphasise the archaeological relevance of this examples are described here from 18th century hunter-gatherer peoples (the Indians of Tierra delFuego, theNootka of British Columbia and the Eskimos of Alaska) and from stone-using farmers (the Maoris of New Zealand and the islanders of Hawaii). A list of the surviving early collection is given in microfiche. |
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