Stone carved sculpture

[AHorsa]

Hi Evereyone,

I need help on this sculpture. It is 40cm high and obviously made from stone.
I searched the web quite intensevely but can´t find any corresponding piece. Especially with this ball / knot on the head.
Is it a contemporary decoration or an ancient piece. And if so, what culture? Celtic, pre-columbian, asian,...?

Any help highly appreciated!

Thanks and best regards
Andreas

[AHorsa]

Hi Everyone,

no one an idea? Even a direction for further research might be helpful.

Best regards
Andreas

[Kubur]

Maybe a Tiki from polynesia...
Which kind of stone is it?

[M ELEY]

Hmm...the squat face, nose shape and expression strike me as Meso-American. Aztec? Incan? Just a guess, mind you. Perhaps a search for mythology involving a God/Goddess carrying the 'world' on his/her head?? :shrug:
Mark

[Jon MB]

I looked at the following:

Irish, Neolithic period
Turkey, Neolithic
Pre-Colombian Olmec votive axe (shape)

No solid leads yet.

Trick is the initial narrowing down to a geographic area.

[kronckew]

statues with hats and protruding top knots immediately hints at rapa nui (easter island) but those have rather longer faces. korea oddly enough has some islands with rounder faced simple prehistoric stone statues and hats with topknots or knobs of some sort. the americas, as mentioned have a variety of cultures other than aztec, mayan. inca.

as basic as this statue is, with very limited features that can be pinned to a specific culture, you may have some difficulty finding out where it's from, possibly chemical analysis of the stone would be able to determine it's origin, tho it could have been carved after being transported and traded a fairly large distance, even over seas. trade routes even in the stone age are unbelievably complex.

[AHorsa]

Hi All,

thanks for your replies and help!!
As figured out, the problem as even to start with geographic area, as it potentially could come from anywhere.
Maybe the material gives a hint: It seems to be Gypsum...
Does that help?

Cheerio
Andreas

[kronckew]

:) that makes it worse! gypsum is mined pretty much world wide, it's the major component of plaster.

alabaster statues are a hard form of gypsum, used for statues from prehistory in egypt and the middle east, iran, etc. thru modern times. heck, egypt even used it for mace heads. it was also used pretty much everywhere for the same reasons, easy to carve and fairly hard. germany is one of the top 22 producers :D 19th among the top 22 (UK is last there)

[AHorsa]

Hmm shit :)

Here are some more detailed images. Maybe that helps.

Best Regards
Andreas

[kronckew]

bigger than i thought ;)

you probably have a museum or university in the rhineland with an antiquities dept. that may help.

[Kubur]

Your stone looks like volcanic tuff and confirms what i was saying.
Look at Moai in Easter island, you'll see big similar things.
:)

[Ian]

Agree with Kubur--volcanic tuff. Easter Island sounds likely.

Ian.

[colin henshaw]

An interesting item - from the images it does appear to have some age ...

Any provenance ? The carvings to the topknot look like sun and moon representations, which may help in identification.

[Athanase]

Maybe Timor? :confused:
For me is not very old (1700 - Today)

[AHorsa]

Thanks for the replies! Will do research in those directions.

Sadly no provenance. Got it from an estate.
I am quite sure it is some gypsum like stone. For volcanic tuff it appears to be not porous enough...

Cheerio
Andreas

[Sajen]

Hi Andreas,

your stone carving is from Sumba Island, Indonesia. Be very careful with it because it's very brittle.
Have a look here: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=sumba+stone+carving&FORM=HDRSC2

Best regards,
Detlef

[M ELEY]

Wow! It looks like Detlef wins the trophy! Nice work! Now...the question is new or old?

[Sajen]

Wow! It looks like Detlef wins the trophy! Nice work! Now...the question is new or old?

Hi Mark,

don't want to win any trophys! :D ;) Have handled some similar carvings by my trips to Indonesia. One, which I bought, get broken by transport to Germany, so my warning to Andreas.
Can't say something about the age but think that the chance is good that the carving is an old one.

Regards,
Detlef

[Sajen]

Do someone know where AHorsa is? :rolleyes:

[AHorsa]

He´s here! :)

Detlef, that´s great! Fits perfect. Also I found some with some structure on the head similar to mine.

Thanks a lot!

Best regards
Andreas

[AHorsa]

One more think concerning the age. Does anyone no if there is any chance to identify the approx age?

Cheerio
Andreas