Window Lintel

18129

From: New Zealand

Curatorial Section: Oceanian

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Native Name Kōrupe
Object Number 18129
Current Location Collections Storage
Culture Maori
Provenience New Zealand
Period Te Huringa I Period
Date Made 1800 - 1900 CE
Section Oceanian
Materials Totara Wood (Podocarpus totara)
Description

A wooden kōrupe (window lintel), placed over a square window. Large central wheku female figure with three-fingered hands on stomach, flanked on each side by four smaller figures and a manaia (spiritual guardian) at each end. Cracked in several places, and with a square hole on one side. Reinforced with three pieces of wood at the back. Surface decoration on the figures consists of ponahi (spiral composed of haehae, rows of carved ridges and parallel lines), unaunahi (crescent combination), and kirikiore (combination of crescents and spirals). Along the bottom of the kōrupe are surface carvings consisting of haehae (parallel lines) and pākati (notching).

A kōrupe is a horizontal carved lintel placed above a window on a wharenui (meeting house). It can consist of carvings that are made to represent ancestors or elements of spiritual protection.

According to notes made by the collector C.D. Voy, the window lintel was formerly on a Māori Chief's house.

Length 116 cm
Credit Line Gift of William Pepper, 1891
Other Number 32 - Other Number

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