Weapons
Mariners brought back many examples of weapons from this region, perhaps intrigued at the variety of deadly forms used in close combat. From Fiji, they collected throwing clubs, paddle, and gunstock shaped clubs. From Kiribati, swords and spears with edges lined with shark teeth, and from New Guinea, cassowary bird bone daggers and stone maces.
Shark tooth edged spear
c. 1880
Kiribati, Gilbert Islands
Ex. Portland Society of Natural History
This piece was collected by a Maine mariner and donated to the former Portland Society of Natural History. The PSNH regularly put out calls for mariners to collect ethnographic items for the museum.
Payback Bone Daggers
c. 1982
Papua New Guinea
Rose S. Zeiber Collection
These daggers were made from cassowary bird bone with a clay head that represented the face of the person to be avenged. These examples were made specifically for the tourist trade.
Club with Stone Head
19th Century
Papua New Guinea
Emerick Collection
This club was collected by Richard Emerick and was not related to the items he acquired in the 1950’s. To complement collections gathered during his fieldwork, he often sought out examples from other areas and time periods.
Gunstock Club
c. 1850
Fiji
Emerick Collection
Collected by Captain Robert Owens of the USS St. Mary when the ship was assigned to the Pacific Squadron between 1848 and 1872.
Totokia War Club
19th Century
Fiji
This particular form of war club was designed to bash a hole in an enemy’s skull.
I-ula tavatava
Fiji
Martha J. Stevens Collection
This throwing club is designed to be thrown from a distance and would be used to incapacitate birds, animals, and humans, which would them be finished off at close quarters. Made from the dense wood of the ironwood tree, they were extremely lethal weapons.
