Axe amulet, mounted in canework.

Collection type: Object
Description: Axe amulet, mounted in canework.
Long description: Axe amulet, mounted in canework. The stone is wrapped in a band of cane. There is a loop handle at one end. [MJD 28/07/2014]
Geographical reference: India
Asia > Southern Asia > India
Cultural groups: Konyak Naga
Person: Field collector Charles Ridley Pawsey; PRM source Charles Ridley Pawsey
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1926
Date collected: By 1926
Acquisition information: Donated: 1926
Materials and processes: Material Stone, Material Cane Plant, Process Ground, Process Basketry, Process Tied
Dimensions: Length: max 131 mm, Depth: max 23 mm, Width: max 45 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1926.20.10
Research and responses: Note that these ground stone axes are Neolithic - they were recorded in the database as 'Ethnography' but they are also 'Archaeological'. I have therefore changed the 'E' in the Archaeology/Ethnography field to 'A E'. [AS 09/08/2010]
Associated publications: Illustrated by a line-drawing (by Henry Balfour) as Figure 5 in Plate I (facing page 169) in ‘Concerning Thunderbolts (Continued)’, by H[enry]. Balfour, in Folk-Lore, Vol. 40, no. 2 (30 June 1929), pp. 168–72. Caption (page 168): ‘Fig. 5—Stone celt, slightly tanged and ground all over; mounted with a canework loop for suspension. Preserved as a “thunderbolt” by Konyak Nagas, of Lasa (Borduria), Naga Hills, Assam. Collected by C. R. Pawsey, I.C.S., 1925. The belief that stone celts are “thunderbolts” is widespread in the Naga Hills (see J. H. Hutton, The Sema Nagas, p. 256; The Angami Nagas, p. 402 ; J. P. Mills, The Ao Nagas, p. 305; Barron, Journ. of the Anthrop. Inst., vol. i (1872), p. lxii). Some of the Naga tribes regard them as luck-bringing; the Lhotas, on the other hand, usually will not touch them.’ [JC 4 12 2014]

Search terms: Tool, Weapon, Religion, Basketry, Transport and Travel, Axe, Amulet, Religious Object, Carrying Device

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