Spears from Buru for sharing

[Sajen]

Dear members,

I want to share with you this three spears/tombaks I bring with from my last trip to Indonesia. This spears are from Buru (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buru), an island near to Ceram. I think that this spears are not to old (see the reinforcing bands from plastic) but they have a very good using patina at the wood. They are 182, 175 and 165 cm long.
All comments are very welcome,

Detlef

[Sajen]

I am a little bit surprised that nobody comment. This spears are for sure not antique, yes, but made for use with a nice patina and I am sure of ethnograhic value and not easy to get. BTW, the brother of my wife who living on Halmahera direct think that they from there and told me that the spears from Halmahera look very similar.

Regards,

Detlef

[Rick]

I'm sorry Detlef, that no one commented on these .

Perhaps it is because no one here is familiar with them ...

I would not like to be on the receiving end of any of these barbed examples, let alone the straight one .

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Rick

I'm sorry Detlef, that no one commented on these .

Perhaps it is because no one here is familiar with them ...

I would not like to be on the receiving end of any of these barbed examples, let alone the straight one .

Thank you Rick,

the reason that I post them was that I thought that nobody will be familar with them so I think that they will be for interest.

I am proud to have them in my collection now, not only because they unknown.
I have carried them with in a cardboardtube from Bali by airplane and than by train!! All people looking very strange to me!!

[Robert]

Hello Detlef, I am quite happy that you linked to these in my spear thread as I completely missed seeing this thread. I do however have a few questions on these. Can you list dimensions on these including shaft diameters? I only ask this because in the pictures you have here they look like they could very easily be very long arrows instead of spears. Either spears or arrows they are a great addition to you collection.

Best,
Robert

[Sajen]

Hello Robert,

these are definitely spears/tombaks. All three were collected from an uncle of my wife. I still keep two, one I have sold to a friend collector. One with the barbed point is 165 cm long, the head is 37,5 cm and the shaft diameter is 1,6 cm. The one with the straight head is 182 cm long, the head is 41 cm and the shaft diameter is 1,7 cm. Tombak from Halmahera look very similar. In the moment I try to get some from Halmahera to Germany.

Regards,

Detlef

[gp]

Originally Posted by Rick

Perhaps it is because no one here is familiar with them ...

that is indeed the reason .

Buru is part of the Moluccan Islands, whose peoples have a history and culture of their own.
More important the island has always been very seperated due to its very wooded forest nature and geopolitical no one really had much interest in the island at all during the centuries...
Even the Dutch came first in 1915 and it was still very secluded and little developed till late 20th century.
Next to some soldiers a German scientist Prof. Dr. K. Deninger in 1910 visited the island , hardly anybody came there...
So even within the Moluccan community it is not easy to find some one from Buru.
Hence you made a lucky but very good purchase and as for the reinforcing bands from plastic: I have seen during my stay in North Africa often quite inventive use of material when repairing one item or another due to the lack of materials. Good use of material (plastic) in such a poor region.

So your feeling about the patina might well be leading when talking about age... , also with the very nice spearheads with hooks which look old.