This diorite bark beater is from eastern New Guinea. Stone bark beaters were used to make tapa cloth from the inner bark of the paper mulberry tree. The precise provenance of the artefact is unknown, but the stone type and manufacturing technology is similar to bark beaters made by the Angu people.
See the annotations for technological details about this stone tool.
The Type III bark beater in this model was likely made on a diorite river pebble. The entire surface is marked by pits from pecking, which was done to give the stone its final shape. This was followed by grinding to smooth the surface. The grooves were cut in with a stone flake. The stone is heavily patinated with an unidentified black residue. A collector’s label was once affixed to the handle area but has since fallen off. The surface patination was removed along with the adhesive, exposing the original unpatinated rock underneath.
Bark cloth is an important item of material culture for Pacifika and First Nations people in various parts of the world. Some researchers have proposed that processed bark textiles were the common form of cloth prior to the adoption of fibre weaving. In New Guinea and the Pacific, Tapa bark cloth is made from the paper mulberry tree, Broussonetia papyrifera. The word ‘tapa’ is a Polynesian word from Tahiti and was introduced into English by Captain James Cook. The inner bark of the tree is pounded with stone or wood beaters by both men and women to produce soft sheets of tapa cloth for both practical and symbolic uses. The cloth is often decorated with elaborate geometric designs made primarily with vegetable dyes.
Tapa cloth was used traditionally for a wide variety of clothing, including headdresses and hats, belts and sashes, loincloths and skirts, and rain ponchos. Bags and containers were made from tapa cloth. The bark was processed into large sheets for use as blankets, room dividers, floor covering, wall hangings, and mosquito curtains. In Asia, mulberry bark was used to make writing paper. Tapa cloth was used to wrap sacred objects and human skulls. Bolts of decorated tapa cloth were used as bride price payments and indicators of wealth. Ceremonial clothing made from tapa cloth was worn on formal occasions such as weddings. Tapa cloth was presented as diplomatic gifts and was an important trade commodity. Tapa production declined with the arrival of cotton cloth in the 19th century, but it is still produced today on many Pacific islands, including Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii, the Cook Islands, and New Guinea. It continues to be used for both practical and symbolic purposes, and souvenirs made from tapa have become an important part of the tourist trade.
Archaeologists have found the earliest bark beaters in south China, Taiwan, and the Indochina peninsula, and it is likely that the technology for making tapa-style bark cloth originated there. The earliest stone beaters were designed for affixing to a wood or cane handle, and date as early as 7900 BP. Composite beaters continue to be made and used in Sulawesi, Indonesia, and other parts of Asia. Single-piece beaters—with the handle as part of the stone—arose by 4000 BP, and those dominate the stone beaters found across the Pacific. Many have a step between the rectangular head and rounded handle and resemble the more common hardwood beaters used in the same regions. The working ends of bark beaters are round or rectangular in cross section, with longitudinal grooves or crosshatching cut into one or more faces. The archaeologist Judith Cameron has recognised eight different types of stone bark beaters from prehistory.
Speakers of Austronesian languages spread outward from China and Taiwan by 5000 years ago, transporting bark cloth-making traditions with them. Broken and discarded stone bark beaters are archaeological evidence of this migration. Over several thousand years these agriculturalists and seafarers moved through Southeast Asia and Indonesia, and eventually colonised the Pacific. The paper mulberry tree was carried by the first wave of colonisers, who planted it in their settlements. The plants are still growing on Pacific islands today, and they have recently been subjected to genetic analysis as a means of tracking the nature and timing of this epic human migration.
Stone bark beaters are also found in Mesoamerica and South America, and bark beaters made from whale bone were used in the Pacific Northwest of North America. Some researchers have proposed the technology was carried across the Pacific by Polynesian mariners hundreds of years ago. However, the bark cloth in the Americas was made from different species of plants, and the technology may have been invented independently several times in the past. Bark cloth was also made in Africa from a local fig tree species and continues to be made in Uganda today, although the bark beaters there were made out of wood rather than stone. The Buganda bark cloth technology in Uganda was inscribed in 2008 by UNESCO into the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Making bark cloth is a complex process that varied in its details across different cultural groups. Generally it involves first stripping the bark from the tree and then carefully separating the outer bark from the inner bark (the outer bark is discarded). The inner bark strip is then soaked and scraped clean. Next the bark strip is placed on a wooden anvil—usually the trunk of a tree—and forcefully pounded with the stone or wood beater. This flattens and separates the fibres, which in turn thins the bark strip and causes it to double or triple in width. The early stages of pounding are done with the incised part of the beater, and later stages may be done with a smooth side. The rough surface is said to help separate and spread the bark fibres. Sometimes the incised part of the beater is used to impress a geometric pattern into the bark. The sheets are fastened together using a starch-based glue, often in combination with more pounding. The final step involves transmitting traditional designs to the cloth using plant-based dye by direct painting, stencilling, or printing. You can view a video on how tapa cloth is made in Tonga here.
In 1936-1937 the anthropologist Beatrice Blackwood described the manufacture of a stone bark beater by Angu craftsmen. A water-rolled cobble of suitable stone was selected that is close to the desired morphology, and was further shaped by pecking. The beater was then ground on an abrasive stone to remove most of the peck-marks. The longitudinal grooves were laid out using a bamboo template. The template was made by slicing parallel slits through the bamboo with a stone flake, and then it was bound onto the beater with cane strips. The parallel lines were then scratched onto the surface of the stone through the slits in the template. The template was then removed and the lines were deepened into grooves using the stone flake. Grooves were made by holding the beater against the thigh with one hand, and the work was passed between multiple people. Sometimes the beater was held by one person and engraved by another. Horizontal grooves were cut across the longitudinal grooves on the beaters observed by Blackwood; the horizontal grooves were done by eye, without the aid of a template. It took about four hours to make the grooves on the beater she witnessed. The engraved area was occasionally rubbed on a grinding stone during use to dull the sharp edges of the grooves and prevent them from cutting into the bark. Angu men and women were involved in making bark cloth for the traditional cloaks worn as rain protection and warmth in their high-elevation villages.
Engraving grooves in a stone bark beater using a stone flake (Blackwood 1950)
Pounding bark with a stone bark beater on a wood anvil (Blackwood 1950)
