A few years ago we bought an old house and knocked it down built a new one. I decided to put a rose bush at the back of the house along the fence line.
I dug approximately half a meter into the ground to add top soill because the ground here is like clay. In the ground we found these two Tiki carvings, it was pretty amazing we found the little one first then the larger one. After that I spent half the day looking for more treasure, didn't find anything else.
Anyway we knew the lady who had the house before us she lived there her entire life died in the house, we purchased the house from her son. Who still lives down the road, asked him about the Tiki carvings and he said no way they put them there he grew up in the house which was built in 1962. Before that there was nothing on the land for miles it was a new project.
The fence lines weren't there at the time. How long were these things in the ground?
Nolan Bennett
Ahh great story. It makes me remember the fact that Incas colonized Easter Island.
Joshua Williams
Are you being serious? I can't tell, I don't come here often mate
John Scott
If Veeky Forums can't help does anyone know how I could find out how long these things were buried. I mean there was nothing on the land for kilometers until they built the houses. And these don't seem to be Aboriginal carvings, but I could be wrong.
Wyatt Ramirez
Do you live in a place where native cultures made things that look like that? Because that might change things. But going off of absolutely nothing, those look like tourist trinkets (are the eyes rhinestones?), and they weren't buried very deep, so they probably weren't there for very long.
Exactly how long is basically impossible to say, unless you know they're prehistoric and fit a temporally diagnostic type. You've basically given us nothing, so it's not like someone is magically going to be able to answer your specific question. If they really are souvenirs, the best you'll be able to find out is when fake Polynesian stuff was really popular. The son not knowing about them doesn't really mean anything; there also might have been something nearby before 1962 that you're not aware of.
Chase Cook
We live in South Australia, the council said there was nothing on the land, Australia is pretty isolated in some parts, there was nothing around before the housing went up "apparently". Maybe there is no way of really knowing, as you said.
They were 500 down in the ground, which does seem shallow, but the earth here is like dense clay, that's why I had to remove a good amount of it to put soil for a garden. Oh well thanks for you help mate
Ayden Rogers
>Do you live in a place where native cultures made things that look like that?
The only natives to Australia are Aboriginals, but they don't look like Aboriginal carvings.
Anthony Adams
Someone from /x/ said the eyes are mother of pearl. They're not rinestones no way
Carson Stewart
>hey Veeky Forums I am an idiot who found some garbage
Cool
Jack Gutierrez
>living on ancient Indian burial grounds
Good luck on being spooked.
Andrew Rivera
Are the made out of wood? Wood doesn't last a long time buried in soil.
Zachary Watson
Yes they are wood carvings.
Jaxon Rodriguez
contact your local museum or uni or something, do you want your hand held
Asher Williams
>South Australia Yeah, then those are almost certainly tourist souvenirs that someone buried for some reason, apparently in the 1960s or 1970s. Maybe the son did it and doesn't remember. Again, we have nothing to go on, so there's no way to be certain.
Why do you even care? Like someone else said, you found some old junk buried in a backyard; that's not really uncommon.
Joshua Lee
Those are in the New Zealand Maori style. Either you / someone who buried them is jooking us, or you have made a landmark discovery in regards to Pacific Aboriginal seafaring.
Angel Harris
Example of Maori carving
Ayden James
Junk! Ok well I guess one man's junk is another mans treasure I'm fond of the little things.
Jeremiah Martin
I'm not joking, the only people, other than the owner who could have burred them there would be the people who built the houses, but why would they do that?
The Owners were Italian and have no interest in Maori style carvings.
Jack Reyes
And if that's junk, then so is everything. When does something become junk, when its buried in the ground, I don't get your Logic.
Luis Clark
Those look like they were taken straight out of a mare. Could be valuable, but I'm not exactly an appraiser. A lot of Maori emigrated to Australia so it's not unbelievable to find something like that.
It could also be some gift shop junk, hard to tell. It's definitely Maori though.
Michael Morgan
*Out of a marae
Anthony Perez
Did you buy the house from the Brady Bunch?
Henry Evans
No way it was from a gift shop, Australia was only colonized 200 odd years ago. These things are hand carved and rough, not mass produced. Given that there was nothing in the area before the houses were first built in 1962 who knows how old they are.
Leo Thompson
They are actually quite soft to touch, as you can see here the wood decaying
Daniel Lopez
...
Ryder Lopez
Little one
Levi Anderson
Mate. I'm assuming your in NZ. If you're not, then then they're fake.
If you are then they're still probably fake. Wood doesn't last that long underground.
Also the two tiki are from two different regions. The larger one has a different style than the smaller one. So they were carved by two different marai.
They're not worth too much. Pretty cool find tho.
Jackson Davis
Mate they're NZ Maori carvings. Since you're from Australia they're not native. The eyes are made from paua shell, but they've lost colour from exposure.
They're from two different tribes from the different style of carving. The larger one is from the Waikato region I think.
Either way they're not worth much, they're probably reproductions, but if they were real they'd be less than 200 years old. Probably less because the Maori had no means to preserve their totems till the euro's got here
Blake Evans
Polynesians were more than capable of traveling from NZ or whatever to Australia. In fact, they most likely did.
Isaiah Torres
Incas were capable of traveling from SA to Polynesian islands. In fact, they most likely did.
Kayden Walker
Well no not really, they had zero naval tradition.
Robert Carter
Mochica had naval tradition, yeah. And they got conquered by Incas in the XV century.
The oral tradition was written by chroniclers. They said that Tupac Yupanqui colonized two isles and came back leaving some of their men to rule them.