comb

Wooden comb, decorated with glass beads, colours: red, blue and white. Reid (1912): 'Worn by chief.'

Early: 1800 Late: 1888

L: 440 mm W: 55 mm

Melanesia Fiji Tavium

Macgregor, William Sir

wood glass glass.beads vegetable.fibre

Macgregor, William Sir

William Macgregor (1846-1919) served the British Colonial Office for 14 years in Fiji (1875-1888), primarily as Chief Medical Officer, but also holding offices such as Receiver-General, Colonial Secretary, Commissioner of Stamps and Acting Administrator.

Bronze 'sunflower head' pin and necklet from a hoard Dingwall (c900-600BC).

During the Neolithic in Britain, about 4000-2000 BC, accomplished flint knapping produced some highly finished items, such as arrowheads, knives, sickles and laurel leaf points. These, along with ground stone artifacts, were probably objects denoting high social status. This is an end scraper made on a fairly large blade, in a grey mottled flint. The distal end of the blade has been modified by steep retouch to make an almost V-shaped scraper edge. The scraper was found in the Bog of Fintray, Fintray, Aberdeenshire, along with other large, well made flint tools. This type of tool is typical of some made in the later Neolithic, but it is possible that the flint was brought into Aberdeenshire from further south in Britain.

During the Bronze age jewellery and personal ornaments were made from metal, both bronze and gold. This is a bronze pin-head of the sunflower type. It is a bronze disc with a central boss and a projection on the underside where the pin has broken off. It is decorated with two sets of incised concentric circles and the rim is upturned. This pin-head is part of a collection of bronzes donated to Marischal Museum, Aberdeen in July 1984. The donation included the donor's great-grandfather William Joyner's original collection of the Dingwall hoard of bronzes taken by him to Natal, South Africa in 1851 and two other bronzes. The hoard comprises this pin-head, two socketed axes and a rare neck-ring, all dating from the later Bronze Age, 1100-700BC and found together near Dingwall in the early 19th century. The two other bronzes became associated with the collection while in Africa and are probably of African origin. During the prehistoric period collections of metal or stone items, often of value to the community or individuals, were buried or deposited in wet places. Axeheads, swords, halberds and ornaments are often found in these hoards. The type of artefact found in a hoard is probably not typical of everyday objects. However, the associations of different objects can help to establish the dates of artefact types.

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