Planetarium Highlight:
Dinosaurs: A Story of Survival
Rakahau te Kohika
Antiquities
Shallow lidded bowl (lekanis) from Apulia. The decoration is of two female heads and stylised palm leaves (palmettes). Attributed to an artist now known as the Ugento Painter. Approximately 350-325 BC
He kura
Complete kawakawa pounamu hei tiki. Cream inclusion are evident on the back. Head turned to the proper left. Proper right eye has a flake missing. Suspension hole protrudes from top of head. Arms bent, three fingered hands resting on thighs. Feet have three toes. Perforations between toes and between arms and torso. Back flattened.
Whakarite kai
Complete stone sinker. Transverse lashing groove.
Rāranga
Small flax kete with twisted handle. Woven in a twill pattern from unscraped flax with no additional decoration. Natural mid-yellow colour. No base seam; cast off by folding to internal side and inserting through other flax strands.
Taoka Māori
Complete pair of poi. Both oblong with a squared base, one slightly larger than the other. Raupo has been wrapped around the poi longitudinally; very wide strips of plant material used. Held together at top of poi with fibre. There is a length of twisted fibre cord emerging from the top, knotted at end.
Complete worked shell. A perforation hole is drilled off centre in the shell. The exterior edge is chipped.
Polished stone axes used by European pioneer farmers to clear land for fields. 6000-3000 BC.
Sickle stones. Mounted on bone or wood, these were used to harvest grain.
Complete whalebone comb with eight thick teeth. The comb has a rounded top, with a carved perforated design appearing on one edge of the frame.
Mahi whakairo
Complete argillite adze. Cross-section of blade is trapezoidal, with back narrower than front. Cross-section of butt is rectangular. Surface is ground on blade, bruised on butt. Minor differentiation between butt and blade, front slightly reduced forming small shoulder. Bevel is continuous with blade, cutting edge is sharp and curved. This adze is lashed to a wooden haft (D33.1311) with a length of processed fibre.
Complete bone bird spear point. Three barbs. Six notches on one side of the base.
World
The goddess Bastet, part cat and part woman was the daughter of Re, the sun-god. She represented the power of the sun to ripen crops. Cats were sacred to Bastet and many bronze cats were dedicated to her at her temple on the Nile delta. The chief seat of her worship was at Bustatie, the modern Tell Basta