This region encompasses, among others, the Caroline, Gilbert, Mariana (including Guam), and Marshall island groups, as well as the country of Nauru.
c. 900 C.E. - present
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Inlaid bird bowl, from Belau
The finely carved wooden bowl is shaped like a bird and was used as a container for sweet drink.
Nan Madol: “In the space between things”
No one knows exactly how the people of Nan Madol created this royal capital made of giant stones.
Painted mask (tapuanu), Caroline Islands
Masks are rare in Micronesia—traditionally they are only found in the Mortlock group of islands
Kiribati armor
Making do with local materials, the I-Kiribati tailored armor from coconut fiber and wore porcupine-fish helmets.
Navigation Chart, Marshall Islands
Master sailors fashioned these maps from sticks and cowrie shells, registering relationships between land and sea.
Wooden sculptures from Nukuoro
The first Europeans to collect these sculptures judged them coarse and clumsy, but Giacometti and Moore disagreed.
