A Chuuk (Truk) Coral Food Pounder

An extremely fine food pounder, or phou, powerfully carved of a single piece of massive and dense coral rock. The flattened, circular top of the pounder is decorated with four large, raised, equally spaced, pointed, nipples. These precious objects were used to pound breadfruit and taro into a form of pudding or mash which was the staple vegetal food of the micronesian islanders. Carved of prehistoric coral rock, as there were no lithic depositis on the atolls, these pounders were important wealth items and social identifiers. The extremely weathered patina is from exposure to wind-swept sand. These heir-loom pounders were often buried with their female owners and have surfaced, over time through the erosion of the tombs at the seaward gravesite of the atoll. The balance and perfection of form and surface are exceptional here.

Chuuk Island (formerly known as Truk), Caroline Islands, Micronesia.
Coral rock with a weathered patina.
18th/19thcentury (possibly earlier).
17 x 12.5 Ø cm.
 

Provenance Ex unidentified German collection inv. N° M : 201.

Literature:
Ref.:
Rosenthal, David : LES PILONS DES ILES DU PACIFIC in TRIBAL ARTS, LE MONDE DE L'ART TRIBAL. N° 11, Année III, Automne-Hiver 1996.
Treide, Barbara : IN DEN WEITEN DES PAZIFIK MIKRONESIEN. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1997. See an identical example in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra N° NGA 2007.432
Krämer, A., Ergebnisse der SüdseeExpedition 1908-1910, Herausgegeben von DR. G. Thilenius, II. Ethnographie : B. Mikronesien, Band 5, Truk, Hambourg, Friederichsen, De Gruyter & Co., 1932