24 October 2020

Sawfish sword (Papua New Guinea)


An awesome weapon that could be used in peacetime to harvest wheat.  This photo from an auction site, where it was described as 
"A decorated sawfish rostrum weapon probably Papua New Guinea, forty toothed blade polychrome painted around repeated dark crescents, raised crocodile head red-clay moulding over proximal end, inlaid with nassa shell scales and cowry shell eyes, mounted on carved wooden zoomorphic grip with human face pommel, 33in. (84cm.) long."
Presumably a nineteenth-century item.  The hammer price was not published.  Via the always interesting Artefact Porn subreddit.

2 comments:

  1. The Aztecs had a similar weapon, though using 'blades' of obsidian rather than fish teeth. Known as a 'macua' or 'macuahuitl', it's a fascinating hybrid of a sword and a club, and wickedly effective. I'm a bit obsessed with martial hand weapons and the history of them, and the macuahuitl is easily my favorite ancient weapon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Haahah I just found one exactly the same but that paints faded

    ReplyDelete