Calabash

Museum number: UEM193

Material: Pumpkin, unknown fibre

Region and culture: New Zealand - Maori 

Description: Gourds dated to the Te Huringa period (1800 - present). Gourd was originally brought to Polynesia from South America and made its way to New Zealand by Maori ancestors. It is used as both a source of food and as a container. The fruit inside the gourd was baked in an oven and eaten afterwards, leaving the hollowed out gourd to be used as a vessel for storing water. These two gourds are approx. 85 cm in circumference and 26 cm in height. Due to their delicate and fragile nature, few of the gourds have survived making these two objects very rare. According to the catalogue text these were collected by Axel Boeck and not Fredrik Ring.  

Konsul Ring dontaed the objects to the Ethnographic Museum on January 31st 1857.