Stone club.

[Tim Simmons]

Bill it seems to be one long strip of bark. I assume it is soaked to make it more elastic or it had these properties when fresh to shrink on itself like hide work in East Africa. Forming a very tight hold. It is indeed tight enough to run amok with confidence. Interesting that the this part of the Pacific completed the world telegraph network in 1902 I believe. Here is some more stuff on trade in the Torres Straits and PNG Fly river region.

I have started the process to make an appointment at the British Museums ethnographic department study room on the matter of flint headed clubs and will report all.

[VANDOO]

IF IT COULD BE DETERMINED WHAT TYPE OF PLANT BARK OR TYPE OF ANIMAL IF IT IS HIDE OR SINEW IT MIGHT HELP YOU PIN IT DOWN. AS MENTIONED LARGE ANIMALS WERE NOT AVAILABLE IN ALL AREAS WHERE MAN LIVED UNLESS YOU COUNT MAN HIMSELF.
MANY PRIMATIVE SOCIETYS CONSIDERED ROCKS OR OTHER NATURALY OCCURING MATERIALS THAT HAD INTERESTING SHAPES TO HAVE SPECIAL POWERS. MANY TIKI STONES IN HAWAII WERE NATURAL SHAPED STONES FOUND AND BROUGHT INTO THE HEIAU (TEMPLE) THAT REPRESENTED VARIOUS POWERFUL BEINGS OR GODS. I BELEAVE THE PRACTICE WAS WIDESPREAD THRU-OUT POLYNESIA. I WILL BE INTERESTED TO SEE WHAT YOU FIND OUT. GOOD LUCK

[Tim Simmons]

It is some kind of bark.

[inveterate]

Tim, I understand you have the piece in your hands and we are just looking at pictures, but could the binding be some sort of Reed as opposed to Bark ? Rod

[Tim Simmons]

I am almost certain it is a bark binding. Arranging to view and take pictures is no problem as long as they are for my own research and not for publication. Would showing pictures here be considered publication? Perhaps Andrew would know? Anyway a visit to the research center is a necessary preliminary to select the examples to view. I will try and find time to make the first visit as soon as possible hopefully next month sometime. It is also FREE

[fearn]

Hi Tim,

Sorry I'm not responding faster, but work takes precedence and I don't currently have a good library nearby to get the images from.

Basically, I know a few things about Oceanic weapons. I also know that it's fairly difficult to get good pictures of those weapons on line, and now that I'm not near a world-class university library, I don't have the access to the old ethnographic reports that I used to have.

That said...

Basically, the club's fairly primitively made, in the sense that it's asymmetric (lumpy). If it is an old Oceanic piece, especially one made for war, I would expect a much higher standard of worksmanship. As you undoubtedly know, artistry was an important an integral part of making a good weapon. That's my main problem with the idea that this is an old ethnographic club. It's not artistic, and in fact, a teenager could have easily made it.

Personally, I'm perfectly willing to believe that the wrapping is bark. It could easily be fig bark (from Australia), or linden bark (from Europe), or hickory bark (from the US), or any of a number of other possibilities. There are a number of trees that produce bark tough enough to make cordage from, and unfortunately, they are not confined to one climatic zone or one continent.

There's a lab in Madison, Wisconsin that could easily identify the wood and perhaps the bark, and there are geology labs in many universities that could probably ID the rock to location. However, each of these tests is somewhat destructive and probably costly. Whether it is worth it in this case I can't tell, but it is technically possible to determine where the materials came from.

Hope this helps,

F

[Tim Simmons]

Hello fearn,

I do not think I shall pursue it quite as far as a Bio Lab. I shall go to the museum to investigate Biro-Biro forms, bird head formed clubs, flint nodule heads.
Here is the rub, I see a great deal of artistry. Did I qualify as an artist? I would like to think I did so would my customers. Come up and see my etchings.
A powerful objet trouve. The halft has been thoughtfully selected and the construction, contrary to just a glance at the pictures, is very sensitive so as to make the whole thing feel good and move with ease. In real space the thing has a powerful presence. It is even possible that hitting people was not the main function. I do not think the people in question had primitive art concepts either. I might just be going completely DADA.

I can upload pictures of many images of clubs and adzes of basically the same construction sadly not one just the same as this one. They were indeed most likely made by relatively young people. Would showing pictures here be considered publishing?

[Tim Simmons]

The power of the objet trouve is with us all the time. This is from today's Guardian a British national newspaper. This image is deep within the western worlds Psyche.
So I really do not see any problem with a flint stone looking like a birds head or skull, or fitting a cultural image in the least. Especially when dealing with an animistic society where the forms are of known and recorded significance. Just look at the first Biro-Biro stones at the start of the thread.

[fearn]

Privet. Hmmmm. Interesting finding. I don't see a lowland tropical Ligustrum species on the list yet, so I'm not buying Torres Strait Islands. Without testing the bark binding (hey, why not disassemble it completely and test the rock head too? ) I think the best guess is that the handle came out of someone's hedge or weed patch.

Great that you're doing this research, Tim. At least, now we know where to go when we have these types of questions next time.

Best,

F

[Tim Simmons]

What does the Australian Privet Hawk Moth grub eat?