Marquesan War Club (Uʻu)
Polished war club of the Marquesas Islands, carved from toa, the dense ironwood, with a long shaft and a flattened, slightly flared head incised with the stylized face of a tiki and other relief designs. The uʻu was the principal weapon of the Marquesan warrior, swung in hand-to-hand combat, but it was equally a work of sculptural art and a badge of rank, kept and treasured as a personal trophy and handed down within families. Some clubs were inlaid with whale tooth or, it is said, with the bone of a fallen enemy, marking the uʻu as both weapon and memorial of its owner.