Spear Head
| Object Number: | 2003-32-333 |
|---|---|
| Current Location: | Collections Storage |
| Provenience: | Easter Island |
| Section: | Oceanian |
| Materials: | Obsidian |
| Length: | 9.2 cm |
| Width: | 7.4 cm |
| Credit Line: | Gift of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum (also known as the Philadelphia Civic Center Museum), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003 |
| Other Number: | 1993.X.244 - Other Number CIVIC1993.X.244 - Other Number |
Description
Flaked obsidian spear point with tang and crescentic cutting edge. "Used by warriors (matatoa) in warfare." Exhibited at l'Exposition universelle de Paris 1900. Such points seem to have appeared on Easter Island after A.D. 1600 during a period of prolonged internal strife. Based on native testimony and ethnographic specimens, they functioned as spear points hafted to wooden shafts of variable length (Jesse D. Jennings, The Prehistory of Polynesia, pp. 149-150).
Bibliography:
| [Book] Phelps, Steven. 1976. Art and Artefacts of the Pacific, Africa and the Americas.. Hutchinson & Co. Type Citation : Page/Fig./Plate: p. 90 Pl. 46; p. 419 #384-389; p. 86 | View Objects related to this Type Citation |
| [Book] Jennings, Jesse D. 1979. The Prehistory of Polynesia.. Harvard University Press. Type Citation : Page/Fig./Plate: pp. 49-50 | View Objects related to this Type Citation |
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