AndrewD
[HoMe Moderator]
12829
The trunk is filled with ...
... porous, soft, fibrous wood that stores water. In fact one tree can store tens of thousand of litres. The tree could be a valuable source of water in the dry season. And the sweet sap mixed with water made a pleasant drink.
The trees were sometimes used for shelter or as prisons - there are two historical trees in Wyndham and Derby, Western Australia that had the centre hollowed out and could contain 10 prisoners. They were used in the late 1800's for this purpose.
Andrew
Australian Aboriginal artifacts 5 – Boab nut
The Boab tree ( Adansonia gregorii ), or bottle tree, is unique to the Kimberly region of northwest Australia (although there are similar Adansonia species in Africa). The trees are deciduous and can live for more than 1500 years. This is a carved Boab nu...
It would be cool to watch someone do the carving...
I find it fascinating to watch a master craftsman doing engraving, it would be cool to see someone do the carving on a Boab. The depth and width of the carving is pretty consistent, wonder what kind of tool he used after they laid down the pattern? -MW
I suspect modern metal tools ...
You really have to go back to early times, particularly before European contact, to find items carved with flints and other traditional tools. The Aboriginals used the best tools available to them so a pocket knife or broken bottle was perfectly suitable....
The trunk is highly unusual, Andrew . . .
. . . nothing quite like it here. Are the trees harvested for the wood?
The trunk is filled with ...
... porous, soft, fibrous wood that stores water. In fact one tree can store tens of thousand of litres. The tree could be a valuable source of water in the dry season. And the sweet sap mixed with water made a pleasant drink. The trees were sometimes use...
Ah, probably not well suited . . .
. . . for cue sticks, then, even decoratively. Side note: do you recall the Kiseki Purpleheart phono cartridge, one of the celebrated renascent moving coils from the '80s? The same wood selected by Kiseki for consonance with vinyl LP reproduction, purpleh...
I suspected you had an ulterior motive for that question, Art.
Thanks for the extra detail. I remember the cartridges as well as the evocative names very well. Thanks! Andrew