- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Throwing club with plain ball head (I ula tavatava) [BS [OPS Move] 15/09/2016]
- Long description
- Throwing club with plain ball head. The round head has deep fissures revealing the root base. The handle is slender and is flared slightly at the butt end and is carved with zig zag tavatava designs in vertical rows to approximately 130 mm up from the end. [FC 02/08/2011]
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1918
- Date collected
- By 1918
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1918
- Materials and processes
- Material Wood Plant, Process Carved
- Dimensions
- Length: max 435 mm, Diameter: max 85 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1918.2.7
- Research and responses
see F Clunie 'Fijian Weapons and Warfare' 1977 Fiji Museum, Suva, Bulletin of the Fiji Museum no.2 and R. Ewins, Fijian Artefacts: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery collection' Australia 1982. [AP Leverhulme project on founding collection 1995-1998]
The i ula were throwing clubs with short handles and bulbous heads. These were the most deadly Fijian weapon, capable of competing with revolvers in close situations. If the handle struck the victim first it could penetrate flesh, the heavy head then jack-knifing onto the victim even if the handle did not pierce him, thus dealing a crippling, if not a finishing blow. [FC 02/08/2011]
1918.2.7
Throwing club with plain ball head (I ula tavatava) [BS [OPS Move] 15/09/2016]
1918.2.7
Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.