African Spears for ID

kahnjar1 · 20th February 2019, 03:15 AM

I am lead to believe that these spears are from Tanzania or at least that general region. Can anyone please confirm that. Also are they actual spears or purely decorative items?
Stu

kahnjar1 · 23rd February 2019, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

I am lead to believe that these spears are from Tanzania or at least that general region. Can anyone please confirm that. Also are they actual spears or purely decorative items?
Stu

Any ideas gentlemen?

Timo Nieminen · 24th February 2019, 07:06 AM

Tanzania or Kenya, probably.

I have a similar head and tail, which came with a human-figure-carved centre wood section - a fancy tourist version of the classic East African three-piece spear. Much shorter than the real thing.

If I knew where it was, I'd photograph it for comparison, but that's a tricky "if". In the absence of mine, I've attached a photo of a similar spear, of total length about 1 metre. Also, for comparison, a couple of full-size non-tourist East African spears (Maasai). If the heads/tails in your OP are close to the size of this tourist example - much smaller than the real thing - then they are almost certainly from similar tourist spears (not necessarily with the figural handle).

20th February 2019, 03:15 AM	#1
kahnjar1 Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: CHRISTCHURCH NEW ZEALAND Posts: 2,739	African Spears for ID I am lead to believe that these spears are from Tanzania or at least that general region. Can anyone please confirm that. Also are they actual spears or purely decorative items? Stu Attached Images

24th February 2019, 07:06 AM	#3
Timo Nieminen Member Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 422	Tanzania or Kenya, probably. I have a similar head and tail, which came with a human-figure-carved centre wood section - a fancy tourist version of the classic East African three-piece spear. Much shorter than the real thing. If I knew where it was, I'd photograph it for comparison, but that's a tricky "if". In the absence of mine, I've attached a photo of a similar spear, of total length about 1 metre. Also, for comparison, a couple of full-size non-tourist East African spears (Maasai). If the heads/tails in your OP are close to the size of this tourist example - much smaller than the real thing - then they are almost certainly from similar tourist spears (not necessarily with the figural handle). Attached Images