McCully Hugh
Hugh Simms McCully 1878-1967
McCully was a Canterbury farmer and amateur archaeologist. His papers are about sites and finds in the area with a particular emphasis on stone tools. He also had a reputation as an inventor.
He came to New Zealand from 1888, his family joining an older brother of Hugh's who had preceded them [1].
McCully guided T L Buick to the moa-hunter sites in the area and appears in Buick's resulting book [2], particularly chapter V.
Early in Schoon's survey of rock art he guided Theo Schoon to rock art sites in the Mt Peel Forest area, where he was reported to have an extensive knowledge of the sites[3]. McCully is described by Skinner as having a deep knowledge of stone tools based on teaching himself to manufacture them, a course Schoon himself was to follow later with other materials. He held Schoon's respect - evidently an unusual happening.
McCully took an interest in the Temuka made soil and borrow pit site [1].
In the Canterbury Museum is a mōkihi (raft canoe) made from raupō: "This mōkihi was made at Temuka in 1950 by Pita Paipeta of Arowhenua, assisted by Hugh McCully." A paper in the Records of the Canterbury Museum by Rosanna McCully McEvedy, Marion Seymour and Anthea McCully gives more detail on its construction and on the life of McCully[4]
He contributed to anthropological sections of science conferences speaking on stone tools [5] [6].
McCully's collection was housed in a 'whare' in his backyard. The collection was sold and dispersed on his death, though recently a substantial component was presented to the South Canterbury Museum by the family of one of the purchasers [7].
A descendant advises: "He was a farmer who invented eleven agricultural machines six of which won medals. His Hustler[8] had a 50-year record of production, from 1917. His knowledge of mechanics and physics informed his archaeological research and papers on stone tools. He started collecting in 1888, aged 10. Parts of his overall collection are in the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Canterbury Museum, South Canterbury Museum and the Otago Museum."[9]
Papers Past has several articles referencing his interest in Maori archaeological sites[1] [2] [3] [4].
Bibliography
1941 Stone Tools Made and Used by The Maori. Suggested Method of their Manufacture, Journal of the Polynesian Society 50:185-210.
1943 The Term "Unfinished" as Applied to Adzes, Journal of the Polynesian Society 52:204-406.
1943 A Multiple-Edged Tool, Journal of the Polynesian Society 52:206-9.
1947 Stone Tools Made From Quarried Material, Journal of the Polynesian Society 56:55-57.
1948 Stone Tools. The Flake, Journal of the Polynesian Society 57:46-56.
1953 In Quest of Rauru, Journal of the Polynesian Society 62:410-411.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Rosanna McCully McEvedy and Marion Seymour 2022 Hugh Simms McCully and the Pits in Temuka Domain "Records of the Canterbury Museum" 2022 Vol. 36: 29–36. Online
- ↑ Buick, T L 1937 The Moa-Hunters of New Zealand: Sportsman of the Stone Age. Thomas Avery, New Plymouth. Online
- ↑ Damian Skinner 2018 Theo Schoon. Massey University Press: 95-6.
- ↑ McCully,Rosanna, McEvedy, Marion Seymour and Anthea McCully, 2020 Hugh McCully’s ‘mogie’. Records of the Canterbury Museum, Vol. 34: 25–33.
- ↑ Anon. 1935 Minutes and Proceedings of the Fifth Science Congress of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Anthropology Section II. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 65:453-453. Online
- ↑ Anon. 1947 N.Z. Science Conference Section J Ethnological Sciences. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 77:357-358. Online
- ↑ Samson, J. O. 2003 Cultures of collecting: Maori curio collecting in Murihiku, 1865-1975 : a dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand: 111, 156-7.
- ↑ THE HUSTLER. TIMARU HERALD, VOLUME CVIII, ISSUE 16969, 31 OCTOBER 1919 "..a patent Lift Drag Harrow and Plough." https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD19191031.2.8
- ↑ Pers. comm. Rosanna McCully McEvedy, 2020.
