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Maori (New Zealand/Aotearoa) short club or patu onewa, hand-held club made of grey-green stone. Club has a spatula-shaped blade polished to an edge. There are three parallel lines carved at the base of the handle with a hole above that would have originally had a flax or dogskin loop that wrapped around the wrist. The club would have been used in a thrusting manner during close combat. Patu onewa were considered a sign of status and prestige.
clubs (weapons)
stone (rock)
string (fiber product)
Club
"Handle with Care/S.W.P./New Zealand/Mere" (Written on brown paper wrapping the club was found in.)
Original To Stephen Phillips House (Salem, Mass.),
Unknown
Pacific Island Region
3 7/8 (W) (inches)
Gift of the Stephen Phillips Memorial Charitable Trust for Historic Preservation
2006.44.3609
http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/search.aspx?term=patu onewa
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