New Guinea Jade Axes

[josh stout]

I found these two jade axes but know very little about them. They seem to be known as "bride price" axes and were used as currency and perhaps still are. These two have small chips in the edges indicating they were actually used, which makes me wonder if they spent their entire lives as currency, or only in retirement. Does anybody know more about these? They seem to come from a range of areas and these two are in distinctly different styles and types of jade. I have seen some things called "ceremonial axes" but they are much thinner and don't look usable. Does this make them distinct enough that they can be attributed to a particular region?

They feel wonderful in the hand, but they show no sign that they were ever used that way. These were hafted tools.

[Timo Nieminen]

How big are they? How thick?

Ceremonial and bridal axes are huge and thin. Old ceremonial axes were usually functional weapons (usually used for killing downed and wounded enemies, before they got steel axes), but too fragile to be tools. Bridal axes aren't usually very sharp. These don't look like bridal axes to me - either too thick or too small.

If smaller (perhaps 10-15cm long), and thicker (perhaps more than 2cm thick), it's a work axe, as used for felling trees before they got steel axes. They're not used in the same way as a steel axe, but lots of short chops. Steel-axe-style big swings are too likely to break them. If you've cut down a tree with a stone axe, you appreciate the value of steel axes. I don't know if work axes like these were used as weapons, but they'd manage OK, as very close range weapons.

If that size or smaller, with an asymmetrically ground edge, then it's an adze head or chisel blade.

Since they're pretty labour intensive to make, and suitable stone isn't available elsewhere, polished axe heads would be traded long distances in Australia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. But their primary function was as tools as weapons. After steel axes, then there isn't so much demand, and then you see things like specialised bride-price axes. So lots of the recent ones are the thin-bladed huge bridal axes, and those are the ones that get collected by tourists (common because they're modern, decorated hafts, and spectacular). I think work axes just get called "bride price" axes by association with their larger bridal brethren.

Perhaps of interest:
http://australianmuseum.net.au/movie...-axes-of-mendi
http://australianmuseum.net.au/movie/tree-feeling-axes

[Tim Simmons]

These blades are not jade. They are made from a rock called schist. Which can have colours ranging from blue, black, and green. When I have time I can post more information. This book is a must have resource if you are to be interested in PNG. The focus of the book is the Dani .

http://www.tamupress.com/product/Cul...Stone,860.aspx

[Tim Simmons]

Axe forms vary from one area to another, PNG is a big island. From your pictures your blades look more like adze type of blade. Stone blade and axes have many functions practical, ceremonial and currency/wealth again the form depends on the region. A huge task to gather all knowledge on the subject. These are the axes I have. I consider myself very lucky to have the Asmat ceremonial axe with the head hunting figurative handle. The stone is beautifully mottled. The so called tree felling axe, which could be used as a weapon, is a form found among the Dani in the western highlands. The other axes are from the eastern and southern highlands. The one with the thick blade is a fighting axe but they are also used as forms of payment.

[motan]

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.

[Tim Simmons]

I did not give any dimensions to these axes but I can say they are hafted for use against humans and only one would not function for cutting wood, the example with the wide plant fibre binding. I have cut wood with PNG adze blades and the two axes with ease.

[josh stout]

Thank you for the replies. The darker stone is 20.5cm *3.8cm while the lighter colored one is 20.4cm*3.4cm. Geology is not my field, and I know nothing of New Guinea’s rocks but I don’t think most schist would make a good axe. They are too large grained. I think you need an amphibole like what is called “black granite” or like what is called jade. The lighter colored stone might have been schist once but if you look closely you can see that the grains have fused together. The darker example is even tighter. Neither contains any mica that I can see, and only a few small spots that might be quartzite.

I have tried to take more detailed pictures of the dark one.

[Tim Simmons]

Get the book. Variants of schist are described. The black is the hardest. However they are not jade. Even if jade is also a metamorphic rock .

[josh stout]

The book is on its way. Thanks!

It can be difficult to impossible to tell rocks apart just by looking at them. If I had to guess I would say yours are diorite, the hard often black or grainy rock used by the Egyptians and many axe makers.

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/C...E.2009.0.215.1)

Another possibility is "graywacke". It is common and usually rough, but it looks like some examples can be polished.

(http://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/au...5-a4f200bea73b)

Jade can be difficult to tell unless it is very green and translucent. Nephrite is often opaque and almost black with green highlights. It can polish to a shiny surface, but so can many other stones.

Looking at the examples posted and the links, it seems as though mine are adze blades. Tree felling axes don't have the lenticular profile, and the fighting axes are flatter and wider. One example shown in the ornate handle is very similar, but perhaps is also a fighting axe? Fighting axes seem to have the edge parallel to the handle, while adzes and wood chopping axes have the edge at right angles?

:No I can see I was wrong. The blade angle alone can't tell you what it is.

Here is another new one. (I like these very much )

I am almost sure it is jade.

[Tim Simmons]

The book is amazing you will want more. This is the only adze I have left. A really big one would be a nice thing to have.

[josh stout]

Nice! It sure looks like jade to me.