Dear List,
My New Zealand colleague Dr Robert Hannah, a specialist in Greek and Roman calendars among other things, was giving a lecture about Greek calendars to a local community group the other week, and one of the audience asked if he could identify an object that he had bought some years ago in South Australia and which he thought had originally come from Indonesia.
He remarks:
"It's a lidded cylindrical container, made of wood, and inscribed with patterns, which the owner thought might indicate a calendar. The body is mainly inscribed with a rectangular field that is divided into 30 columns and 12 rows, all crossed by five diagonal lines. The small 'boxes' created by the columns and rows sometimes have four tiny vertical lines, sometimes are blank, sometimes have some kind of image in them (I think). The 360 'boxes' might suggest something inclining to a calendar"
The object is curious indeed! I attach his photos below. Please let us know if anyone has seen such an artefact before and what it might represent.
With best wishes,
Clemency
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Dr Clemency Montelle
http://www.math.canterbury.ac.nz/~c.montelle/
School of Mathematics and Statistics
University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha
Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140
NEW ZEALAND