1950.5.20B

Collection type

Object

Description

Bamboo tube, possibly a pipe.

Long description

A bamboo tube with a flat open end and a closed end from which three triangular projections extend. The surface is decorated with pyro-engraved patterns arranged in organised columns running from the open to the closed end. The designs include triangular, circular, and rectangular motifs, as well as a human figure near the closed end. The triangular projections are similarly decorated.

Geographical reference

Papua New Guinea

Oceania > Melanesia > Papua New Guinea

Person

Maker Unknown Maker

Field collector Charles Robert Stonor

PRM source Charles Robert Stonor

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1949

Date collected

1949

Acquisition information

Purchased: 1950

Materials and processes

Material Bamboo Plant, Process Pyroengraved Pokerwork

Dimensions

Length x Width: max 408 x 51 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1950.5.20B

Research and responses

The purpose of this bamboo tube is unclear. It is stored alongside bamboo smoking pipes from the same region and resembles them in both construction and decoration, except that it lacks the ‘dorsal hole’ required for use as a smoking pipe. Other similar tubes (1950.5.22B and 1950.5.21B) are kept with it, and they too lack a dorsal hole. These three objects may simply be unfinished pipes; however, all of them feature triangular ‘jaws’ on their closed ends, a detail absent from the finished pipes. This could be coincidental, or it may indicate a specific use. Pipes with similar triangular ends are illustrated in C. A. Haddon’s article Smoking and Tobacco Pipes in New Guinea, published by the Royal Society, although some of these also lack a dorsal hole. Primary documentation records that these objects were used for ‘amusement,’ though what this means exactly in terms of usage is unclear.

Search terms: Narcotic, Religion, Box, Pipe, Amulet