From Treasure to Artifact
- Shell bracelet with mend holes
- Conus spp.
- Suluan District, Samar Island, Philippines
- Date unknown
- Philippine Expedition Collection, UMMAA 34882
How did this shell bracelet break? We can't answer that, but we do know that someone cared enough to drill mend holes on both sides of the breaks to repair their treasured ornament. The bracelet remained with its owner after his or her death. It was excavated in a burial cave on the Philippine island of Samar by University of Michigan archaeologist Carl Guthe in the 1920s and shipped to Ann Arbor. Using the original holes, the broken pieces were tied together in the museum storeroom by a student conducting research for a class.