USABall-headed tomahawk from the USA, Americas. Part of the Pitt Rivers Museum Founding Collection. Given to the Museum in 1884.

Ball-headed wooden clubs of this type can be traced to Iroquois or Huron peoples of the northeastern United States and southern Canada. Since this example was collected in the northeastern woodlands region, it is likely to have belonged to the Iroquois. It would have been used to deal blows with the hand rather than by throwing. The club is of beech wood and may have been made in the traditional way from a sapling that grew out horizontally and upward from a riverbank. This provides the natural curve without cutting across the grain and reducing its strength, whilst the root-ball provides the mass of wood for the ball head. This club is also rather typical in that the ball head is depicted in the grasp of an animal, either in the talons of a bird or, as here, in the mouth of a predator. It also has carved representations of animals, birds and arrows on the scalloped shaft. These served to invoke mythology sprits of nature, or even indicate the owner's number of kills or coups. Such decoration was a feature of early weapons and dates this example to the early 18th century.