Description:

Pre-Columbian, Dominican Republic, Taino / Ciboney peoples, ca. 1000 to 1500 CE. A beautiful celt or axe blade, hand carved and polished from a greenstone. The petaloid shape has a slender handle with a conical tip, and a wider body that curves outward and tapers to a blade edge. The stone has been hand polished until is gleams with a pleasantly tactile smooth surface, and boasts lovely mottled dark and light green with beige veins. This blade would have been hafted onto a wooden handle of a ceremonial hatchet called a "manaya," though there are only limited examples where the handle and blade are carved from a singular contiguous piece of stone. The Yoruba African people that the Spanish brought as slaves to the Caribbean found these stones in fields and linked them to the Yoruba deity Shango (sometimes Chango) because of their thunderbolt shape. Lucite stand for photography purposes only. Size: 5.3" L x 2.125" W (13.5 cm x 5.4 cm)

Provenance: private southwestern Pennsylvania, USA collection, acquired prior to 2000

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#160210

  • Condition: Tip repaired with visible hairline break line. Abrasion and losses to blade edge. Nice stone inclusions and some mineral deposits.

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January 14, 2021 10:00 AM MST
Louisville, CO, US

Artemis Fine Arts

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