2007.94.1

Collection type

Object

Description

Dagger made of cassowary bone.

Long description

Dagger made from a cassowary bone. The outer surface of the shaft of the dagger has been engraved for most of its length with linear and zigzag designs. A stylised face has also been engraved on the shaft approximately 225 mm up from the tip. At the tip end of the dagger the shaft is undecorated for a length of 92 mm. The condyle handle end of the dagger has also been engraved and has been carved into a bird's head (possibly a parrot or hornbill). At the very top of the shaft on either side of it, just at the condyle, two eye-like designs, or two circles with a dot in the centre, have been engraved into the bone. The inner surface of the dagger is dark brown in colour except at the edges where it is bone-coloured. The outer surface of the dagger is a lighter brown than the inner and the areas which have been cut out to produce the designs remain a lighter bone colour. The tip of the dagger is a rounded point and is smooth but shows no signs of damage from use. [MdeA 06/11/2007]

Geographical reference

Papua New Guinea

Oceania > Melanesia > Papua New Guinea

East Sepik Province Maprik Area

Cultural groups

Abelam

Person

Field collector Father of N. Philip Morgan

PRM source N. Philip Morgan

Date / Period

Date made: Circa by 1967?, uncertain

Date collected

circa 1967

Acquisition information

Donated: 13/02/2007

Materials and processes

Material Cassowary Bone Bird, Process Carved

Dimensions

Width: max 98 mm approx, Length: max 395 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 2007.94.1

Research and responses

See 'Mother Cassowary's Bones: Daggers of the East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea', by Douglas Newton, in Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 24. (1989), pp. 305-325. [MdeA 06/11/2007]

Search terms: Tool, Food and Drink, Weapon, Figure, Dagger, Food Accessory, Knife, Gouge, Bird Figure