Shark Tooth Sword, Kiribati

The Shark Tooth Sword, or te kainian, is a traditional weapon and ceremonial object crafted by artisans of Kiribati (formerly the Gilbert Islands) in the central Pacific Ocean. These remarkable objects are constructed from coconut wood hafts edged with sharks' teeth bound with human hair or coconut fiber, representing both functional warfare tools and expressions of indigenous Pacific craftsmanship. Examples have appeared at major auction houses including Bonhams and Sotheby's as significant ethnographic artifacts of Micronesian material culture.