Melanesian obsidian spear

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Melanesian obsidian spear
Bismarck Archipelago Obsidian Speer.jpg
Information
Weapon type: Throwing weapon, spear
Designations: Obsidian spear
Use: weapon
Region of origin /
author: 		Melanesia , ethnic groups of the Admiralty Islands of the Bismarck Archipelago
Distribution: Melanesia
Overall length: up to about 180 cm
Handle: Wood
Particularities: Obsidian blade
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A Melanesian Obsidian Spear is a throwing weapon from the Bismarck Archipelago .

description

A Melanesian obsidian spear has a blade made from obsidian . The shaft is made of hardwood or pipe. The blade is made from a larger piece of this volcanic glass by striking it off with a stone . Correct processing makes the cutting surfaces so sharp that they are in no way inferior to a scalpel blade . The cut surfaces are so finely worked that the thickness of the outermost edge is already in the molecular range.

The blade of this spear is inserted into a carved wooden base and fastened with thin ropes . The wooden base is covered with natural rubber and mussel shells are inlaid .

The 1906 collection guide of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum states that spears and daggers were attached using a similar technique: “Everywhere there is initially a cover made from the thick end of the sago leaf , which is placed around the spear shaft and obsidian point and tied with a raffia cord. A putty compound is then usually applied immediately and then rubbed with dyes (black, red-brown) so that it gets a nice polish. ”Further examples of the Admiralty Islands are given:“ Below various wood carvings (a human figure or a crocodile head, e.g. . also showing both in combination). The attachment of the point, however, is always colorfully ornamented, whether it be cord or cement. The ornaments, embedded in the putty, range between the depiction of a bird with spread wings and a human face. "

Specimens are particularly common today in museums in the Pacific, including multi-pronged ones. So shows z. B. a specimen from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa a spear with two obsidian points.

Heinrich Schnee in his work Pictures from the South Seas from 1904 points out that after the chopping off, no further processing was often necessary, but that the Melanesians living there attached great importance to ornaments. He also points out that the resident seafaring tribe of the Manus bartered the obsidian points further in Melanesia.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the quality of these blades declined rapidly as imported metal blades were now easier to obtain. The more common variant in the region is the Melanesian spear .

Origin and Distribution

In the Bismarck Archipelago, obsidian blocks are only found on the Admiralty Islands Lou , the Pam Islands consisting of Pam Lin and Pam Mandian , on Manus , in New Britain in the places Talasea and Mopir on the Willaumez peninsula , and from the D'Entrecasteaux Islands on the Fergusson Island (Moratau), as well as found on the Banks Islands of northern Vanuatu , around 800 km southeast of Rennell .

Obsidian splinters are generally used as obsidian tools for knives, scrapers, arrowheads and spears, which, in addition to the showpieces in museums, are mainly found as archaeological finds. They have achieved great importance in the last decades because there are e.g. B. with proton induxated X-ray spectroscopy is possible to determine the exact place of origin of a fragment. Thus, the distribution channels and the mutual cultural influence within this geographical area can be explained. The earliest finds indicate that it was in use as early as 20,000 years before Christ. From the Admiralty Islands and New Britain they were spread several thousand kilometers to Tonga, Fiji and Samoa to the east, and to Borneo to the west.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinrich Schnee (Ed.): Article Admiralty Islands and Obsidian . In: German Colonial Lexicon. Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1920. ( Online ).
  2. ^ Willi Foy: Guide through the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum (Museum of Ethnology) in the city of Cologne . Dumont Schauberg, Cologne 1906, p. 105-106 ( archive.org ).
  3. ^ Willi Foy: Guide through the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum (Museum of Ethnology) in the city of Cologne . Dumont Schauberg, Cologne 1906, p. 105 ( archive.org ).
  4. ↑ Object FE010547
  5. ^ Heinrich Schnee: Pictures from the South Seas. Berlin 1904, pp. 203-204.
  6. ^ Spear with obsidian point in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, inventory no. 1900.55.463 , accessed September 29, 2012.
  7. ^ Clayton Fredericksen: The maritime distribution of Bismarck Archipelago obsidian and island Melanesian prehistory . In: Journal of the Polynesian Society. Auckland, New Zealand Vol. 106, 1997, No. 4, p. 376 and map on p. 377.
  8. ^ Clayton Fredericksen: The maritime distribution of Bismarck Archipelago obsidian and island Melanesian prehistory . 1997, op. Cit., With further literature.