Papua New Guinea Bride Price Axe.

Exceptional and superb large Bride Price axe head of a beautiful fine-grained, silicified, slightly hornsfelised, tuffaceous siltsone known as gaima. Mined from the quarry in the Dom area near Tomai northwest of Gaima School in the territory of the Kaupia Bia Gau clan of the Goruku tribe, Simbu Province, Eastern Highlands Papua New Guinea. This large axe head is of the type used solely in the manufacture of di kurin or kurun - Bride Price axes.

423mm x 130mm x 21mm. Courtesy Kim A Akerman 2014.
Ex Arthur Beau Palmer Family Collection.