Shark Tooth Swords

April 4, 2013 5:51 AM

Badass Shark Teeth Weapons Hint at Shadow Diversity Josh Drew and colleagues have published a report in PLOS ONE wherein he shows that the people of the Gilbert Islands make really cool weapons that can tell us about the shark biodiversity the used to exist. Original paper here
posted by cnanderson (15 comments total)

Wow, very cool. I would hate to face an angry warrior coming at me with those. But I must be getting old because I found the use of the word "Badass" in a National Geographic article title a bit jarring.
posted by Ron Thanagar at 6:00 AM on April 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

(And of course it's very interesting that that scientists can extrapolate previously existing biodiversity from old weapons.)
posted by Ron Thanagar at 6:02 AM on April 4, 2013

@Ron Thanagar Wow, very cool.

Though they did miss a trick in not inventing the sharktooth chainsaw.
posted by raygirvan at 6:18 AM on April 4, 2013 [2 favorites]

This reminds me a little of Maori hangi being used to study Earth's magnetic field. Turns out their ovens got hot enough to let the rocks realign to the magnetic field, so even though there's no pottery in that part of the world we do have some sort of archaeological record in that region. Clever bit of inference from a limited historical record.

I saw some shark tooth weapons on a recent visit to Hawaiʻi. The most frightening to me was a wooden dagger, simple enough, with a single big shark's tooth. A barb, to rip a big ol' jagged wound in you and fuck you up.
posted by Nelson at 6:22 AM on April 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

It includes 124 specimens, including swords, tridents and a lance that Joshua Drew from Columbia University describes as “2.5 interns tall”.

posted by Now there are two. There are two _______. at 6:44 AM on April 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

Nelson: "This reminds me a little of Maori hangi being used to study Earth's magnetic field. Turns out their ovens got hot enough to let the rocks realign to the magnetic field, so even though there's no pottery in that part of the world we do have some sort of archaeological record in that region. Clever bit of inference from a limited historical record."

First off, lots of ovens all around the world have done so, check archaeomagnetic dating. It's a fascinating sort of dating hack, though sampling is really tricky (I've been involved in it once, years ago). As an adjunct to other forms of dating, though, awesome.

Second, this is cool stuff with the shark teeth weapons being used in research like this. Gotta love lateral thinking! Back to the swords, the i-Kiribati defended against the shark-tooth weapons with coconut fiber armor (examples here and here [PDF]). Awesome stuff.

Third off (and paraphrasing), "even though there's no pottery we do have some sort of archaeological record for the region"?! Augh! I don't even know where to start, but this isn't a lesson on the archaeology of Polynesia, so let's just say that you are a bit off the mark. Fuck it, I'll start a little but try to keep it short:

• Pottery made it into west Polynesia when it was originally colonized, but it didn't last for much more than about a thousand years. A few individual sherds have been found east of Samoa. Fiji, however, is still going strong. So there's at least some pottery in the region.
• The archaeological record of New Zealand is awesome! You've got everything from massive pa hillforts to moa kills to greenstone artefacts to stone clubs to flaked stone to an entire flooded village where wooden and organic artefacts have been preserved. And that's not to mention even all the fantstic carved wood that's survived. Maori don't need no pottery 'cos they've already got a shitload of awesome stuff!
• In other parts of the Pacific, though, yes, without pottery there's a fairly limited archaeological record, primarily because preservation is a tricky thing in the humid tropics. But with a little clever thinking, a lot of people are approaching a limited archaeological record orthogonally -- as a result of not being able to simply rely on "welp, there's a pot. Here's another pot. Here's another pot." -- and learning that it's absolutely possible to do cool work with less.

Err, clearly I have Things To Say on this topic ...

So, in conclusion, the Pacific is a land of contrasts.
posted by barnacles at 6:51 AM on April 4, 2013 [12 favorites]

A slightly older article from NatGeo on the same topic also makes mention of some other arms and armor:

"Often in these battles, two "champions" would fight in a central skirmish. The champions "were dressed in this really cool armor made of very tightly woven coconut cords, and they had tiger shark 'brass knuckles' and helmets made out of dried pufferfish with spikes on them," Drew said."

Shark knuckles, pufferfish helmets, huge lances, ladies throwing clubs from the sidelines. Amazing.
posted by themadthinker at 7:15 AM on April 4, 2013 [2 favorites]

Oh good heavens Barnacles, I wasn't trying to say Polynesian history is impoverished. Just that the archaeological record there is missing pottery and writing, so you have to get creative looking elsewhere like sharks teeth and oven floors. Which as you say, is pretty damn cool. Besides, who cares about some dumb chamberpots when you've got sharks teeth swords and massive jade clubs?

Thanks for filling in what sorts of interesting Polynesian historical artifacts are available. Can you recommend any good layman's books on pre-European Polynesian history? I enjoyed reading both Cahokia and 1491, I'd love to read something similarly well researched and approachable about the Pacific.
posted by Nelson at 7:50 AM on April 4, 2013

This is very cool, would hate to be facing one of these weapons.

Of course, there was one guy who cut out the middle man and just brought a shark with him.
posted by arcticseal at 8:52 AM on April 4, 2013

Something something bring a fish to a shark fight.
posted by Now there are two. There are two _______. at 8:54 AM on April 4, 2013

Just for cringe inducing reference, the Aztecs used to do this with razor sharp obsidian blades.*

*In similar inland parallels they also wore Jaguar heads on their own heads. In a bizarre twist however, Aztec battle plans included sending some naked guys leading the charge holding up big slabs of obsidian polished up to a mirrored surface which, upon seeing their reflection, would terrify the enemy into thinking that they had captured their souls in the stone.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 10:29 AM on April 4, 2013

Nelson: "Oh good heavens Barnacles, I wasn't trying to say Polynesian history is impoverished."

No worries! I just get a bit, err, defensive about. And I was around a number of classicists lately, which really gets the hackles up!

I'm gonna go think about a good prehistory of the region, now, and get back to you in a bit ...
posted by barnacles at 11:15 AM on April 4, 2013

And I was around a number of classicists lately, which really gets the hackles up!

Haha, frankly, I'm a bit jealous you don't have to memorize every style of amphora, ever...


This is a cool study and I love seeing biological data from artefacts used in new ways!
posted by jetlagaddict at 11:24 AM on April 4, 2013

Ron Thanagar: (And of course it's very interesting that that scientists can extrapolate previously existing biodiversity from old weapons well-preserved biological samples.)

posted by IAmBroom at 11:39 AM on April 4, 2013

Echoing Nelson's request for book recommendations. Any suggestions on Melanesia? I live in Vanuatu.
posted by orrnyereg at 2:27 PM on April 4, 2013