Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

motan · 9th April 2016, 01:45 PM

Hi Josh, I am novice to this forum and don't know anything about New Guinea. My main area of collecting, completely separate from this forum, is stone age tools from my native country, Israel.
Axes of this type have been made in virtually all cultures of the world, starting around 5,000 BC. Their use was as weapon or ceremonial-most probably both. Working axes and adzes are even older, but look slightly different. If they are ground/polished type, usually only the tip is polished and the rest is chipped. Working axes were heavy, broad edge instruments. The smaller ones, like yours were hafted as adzes, as Timo rightly commented, with the edge 90 deg to the haft and the body leaning diagonally towards the user. They were used mainly for wood working. For this use, they had to be sharp, and your don't look even nearly sharp enough. Hafts for serious use were probably much sturdier and less decorated than those in Tim Simmons' post (very beautiful).
By general looks, yours look very similar to some in Tim's post and therefore, are likely from the same area, but probably have never been used as working tools.

9th April 2016, 01:45 PM	#5
motan Member Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Jerusalem Posts: 274	Axes and adzes Hi Josh, I am novice to this forum and don't know anything about New Guinea. My main area of collecting, completely separate from this forum, is stone age tools from my native country, Israel. Axes of this type have been made in virtually all cultures of the world, starting around 5,000 BC. Their use was as weapon or ceremonial-most probably both. Working axes and adzes are even older, but look slightly different. If they are ground/polished type, usually only the tip is polished and the rest is chipped. Working axes were heavy, broad edge instruments. The smaller ones, like yours were hafted as adzes, as Timo rightly commented, with the edge 90 deg to the haft and the body leaning diagonally towards the user. They were used mainly for wood working. For this use, they had to be sharp, and your don't look even nearly sharp enough. Hafts for serious use were probably much sturdier and less decorated than those in Tim Simmons' post (very beautiful). By general looks, yours look very similar to some in Tim's post and therefore, are likely from the same area, but probably have never been used as working tools.