Whalebone chest ornament

About this item

Title

Whalebone chest ornament

Content partner

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Collection

Te Papa Collections Online

Description

As a result of warfare with Fiji, Tongan warriors fashioned whalebone chest ornaments as a form of armour to repel Fijian weapons. They were also used as a symbol of status. From the late 18th century up to the 19th century, Fijian chiefs adopted a similar object of prestige made from ivory and pearlshell called Civavonovono and Civatabua. This is an extremely rare Tongan example, fashioned from one piece of ivory.

Format

Image

Date created

1700s

URL

https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/1083121

Related subjects

Warfare / Whales / whale bone (bone) / ivory / necklaces / Tonga / Polynesian / Tongan

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Creative Commons

This item appears to be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (BY-NC-ND) 4.0 CC International license.

More Information

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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

You can learn more about the rights status of this item at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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