Self bow of reddish hardwood tapering gradually towards both ends. The bow is of plano-convex section, and has the remains of a string which is attached to the nocks by mean of an elaborate snood.
Bow, probably from Malaita, Solomon Islands, Central Melanesia Although it was used for hunting throughout the Solomon Islands, the bow was only really a popular weapon of war on Malaita, spears and clubs being much preferred everywhere else. As in this example, Malaita war-bows, intended to kill humans rather than small game, were much larger and heavier weapons than those from neighbouring islands. This finely carved self-bow has been cut with a stone-bladed adze from a single piece of wood (probably mangrove wood, Rhizophoracaea spp.). It has been planed down evenly towards both ends, and sanded smooth using rough sharkskin and abrasive leaves. The cross-section of the Solomon Islands bow is a slightly elongated D-shape throughout, intermediate between the noticeably flat bows of New Guinea and the concave-bellied bows of Polynesia. This shape emerges from the Solomon Islanders developing a round coconut-fibre bowstring, rather than the broad, flat split bamboo string used further west. This meant that bows could be carved narrower without the string skinning the archer’s forearm when it was fired. Wood, coconut fibre. Late 19th Century. Provenance unknown.
fighting
