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1902.21.3

Wood club with bulbous, pointed head and plaited rope arm-sling. [JC [OPS Move] 12/09/2016]

1902.21.3

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Collection type
Object
Description
Wood club with bulbous, pointed head and plaited rope arm-sling. [JC [OPS Move] 12/09/2016]
Long description
Wood club with bulbous, pointed head and plaited rope arm-sling, tied around the base of the shaft. The head has a circumferential groove and there are a series of oblique notches where the shaft swells into the head. There is a small pointed knob carved at the butt. The rope arm-sling has a large plant fibre tassel. [JC [OPS Move] 12/09/2016]
Geographical reference
Vanuatu
Oceania > Melanesia > Vanuatu
Mai [Emai]
Person
Field collector Henry Boyle Townshend Somerville
Field collector HMS Dart
PRM source Henry Boyle Townshend Somerville
Date / Period
Date made: Before 12/1891?, uncertain
Date collected
Betwen June and December 1890 or between June and December 1891 ?
Acquisition information
Donated: 1902
Materials and processes
Material Wood Plant, Material Rope, Material Plant Fibre, Process Carved, Process Plaited, Process Tied, Process Incised, Process Notched
Dimensions
Width: max 200 mm, Depth: max 75 mm, Length: max 830 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1902.21.3
Research and responses

Somerville served on HMS Dart in a survey of the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) in 1890 and 1891 (in both cases from June to December). The material from Vanutu in this collection was, thus, presumably collected during this survey. See his ‘Notes on Some Islands of the New Hebrides’ (based on a paper entitled ‘Ethnological Notes on the New Hebrides’ read at the meeting of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland on 21 February 1893), in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Vol. XXIII (1894), pp. 2–21, and ‘Ethnological Notes on New Hebrides’ (based on a paper entitled ‘Ethnological Notes on the New Hebrides’ read at the meeting of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland on 9 January 1894), in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Vol. XXIII (1984), 363–93; see also his The Chart-Makers (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1928). [JC 26 2 2003]

Search terms: Weapon, Club, Carrying Device

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