Throwing Club, Iula

"Iulatavatava," fluted throwing club fashioned with flanges of serrations around the head, which were originally the buttress roots of the shrub from which it is made. There are ninety-three incised lines going up the shaft of the club, these mark a kind of festival calendar. Has original peale tag. This club was catalogued as t-12102, but was identified by its original peale number. Exhibited Magnificent Voyagers, National Museum of Natural History, 1985-86.

This object was collected in Fiji under the direction of Lt. Charles Wilkes, leader of the historic United States Exploring Expedition, the American scientific expedition to circumnavigate the globe. The objects collected from that expedition became some of the founding collections of the Smithsonian Institution.