Pearl shell lure.
Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tāmaki Paenga Hira. AU1785.
The discovery of this pearl shell lure on an archaeological excavation in Tairua in the Coromandel in 1964 was an exciting find, and proved extremely popular with visitors who examined this important object using Collections Online, or viewed it onsite in Māori Court East.
Even after 60 years of professional archaelogical excavations, this lure was the only object of Polynesian origin to be discovered in situ at a New Zealand excavation.
Our Curator Archaeology, Lousie Furey, provides all the background, and you can view the lure in 3D too!