Sidestep - The Kotiate

The kotiate was a prized weapon and also favoured by chiefs when speech-making. It is a curiously shaped weapon, and noted for the carved notches on either side of the blade. The notches were used in a ripping action. The word kotiate literally means 'to divide, split in two'. Kotiate were usually about thirty-two centimetres in length and made from whale bone, although some were fashioned from hardwood such as akeake and rautangi. The carving on whale bone examples was usually confined to the butt of the handle. Like other mere and patu (hand clubs), kotiate had wrist thongs to wrap around the warrior's hand to ensure the weapon was not lost during battle.

Whalebone versions, prior to whalers arriving in NZ, were very rare. Most were make of hardwood, and the decorated type are not that old. But the unadorned versions have their own simplistic beauty. These are what I call the genuine article.

There are NO stone examples of these weapons - which could easily have been fashioned. So why didn't they? No one knows.

The whalebone kotiate or club features a typical quatrefoil blade with a carved figure on the butt of the handle. The kotiate was named for its distinctive double silhouette of the human liver, taken from the Maori terms koti – to divide and ate – the liver. 'ate' also means weapon in the old language first written down. It was also once referred to as a Patu Kakati. This means 'sting'... a weapon that stings? Some examples have areas of discolouration suggesting it may have been buried or used in battle at some point in the past.

The origin of the kotiate form with its two side notches remains a puzzle. Apparently the lobes were used to cut the liver from the body after death, hence the name 'koti' (cut) and 'ate' (liver). They say it represents the shape of the liver but only one part, where the falciform ligament exists. The shape of the liver is not like the Kotiate at all, even the lobes don't really match the liver join between the left and right lobes properly. But if it was, then this weapon and its use was designed by Maori around 1700 to dismember bodies (specifically the liver) of the enemy slain in battle. Does that seem plausible to you? So you'd kill someone with a blow to the head, use maybe obsidian to cut the body open and then use the club to pull out the liver? Really? It turns out the notches were there to attach bundles of white feather so as to distract the enemy?

The spatulate form of thrusting club is unknown in Polynesia, but Easter Island has a short wooden club with a flat blade something like that of a mere and with the butt end of the grip ornamented with a carved human head. The head, however, faces directly down towards the blade whereas the Maori heads are transverse and face away from the blade. The butt end is not perforated and the clubs were probably used for striking.

Maori came from Polynesia with no such club in existence where they came from. There is also no such club in any form that is Melanesian either. The Kotiate, could therefore, be the most original weapon in the world and its a real beauty. Oddly, there is no Kotiate conclusively dated to beyond 1700's, so it appears this weapon may have been an entirely new development or an adaptation of some old long revered version taken from the ancient inhabitants... but that's just a wild guess.

You could buy one of these bone versions, in good condition, at an auction overseas for about NZ $20,000 - $30,000 and even then these are only just 19th century examples, some of which are made with iron tools. To find a truely old one, made around 1700, would be a rare find indeed.