A wooden hand from Easter Island (Rapa Nui), part I

Abstract

A life-size carved wooden hand partially covered with remnants of whitish bark cloth, collected on Easter Island during the visit of HMS Topaze in 1868, was located in a private collection ( fi gs. 1 – 2). To the best of our knowledge, this is the fourth traditional carved wooden hand known from Easter Island. 1 In this article we present a preliminary description of this object, which includes painted tattoo-like patterns and inscribed rongorongo -like glyphs. Relative to the latter, we address the question of whether or not any other objects inscribed with rongorongo -like glyphs were collected during the visit of HMS Topaze . In a subsequent complementary article we will offer an analysis of the tattoo-like patterns and rongorongo -like glyphs found on the wooden hand, along with notes on the cultural and religious signi fi cance of the hand for the pre-Christian Rapanui.