Dani Stone Adze (Yara)

Dani People, Early–Mid 20th Century, Baliem Valley, Irian Jaya (Papua), Indonesia

A magnificent small-sized yara adze featuring a beautifully polished flat greenstone blade and a simple yet elegant hand-carved wooden haft. The handle, rich in warm golden-brown tones, is smoothly sculpted into a graceful curve that tapers to a fine point at its base. The deep dark green blade, projecting at a sharp angle, is firmly attached with tightly braided cord—an expertly executed binding that secures the precious stone in place.

Stone adzes of this type served both practical and ceremonial functions within Dani culture. Used for cutting wood, digging, extracting sago from palms, and shaping architectural timbers, they were effective enough to carve even the dense ironwood posts of chiefs’ houses. The blades were fashioned from pibit-pibit, an extremely hard and highly prized chloromelanite sourced from the Cycloop Mountains. This jade-like material varies in colour from pale green to nearly black depending on its mineral composition. Difficult to obtain and laborious to shape, these stones held significant value and were used as a form of currency. While the current hafting and cordage are mid-20th century or earlier, the stone blade itself may be considerably older—having been repeatedly rehafted as bindings wore with time.

The Dani, one of the most populous peoples of the central highlands of Western New Guinea, are closely related to the Yali, Moni, and Lani. First encountered by Western explorers in the late 1930s, they remained largely isolated until Dutch colonial posts were established in the Baliem Valley in the mid-1950s. Prior to outside contact, Dani society was agrarian, hunting and gathering-based, and deeply rooted in animist beliefs. Their worldview emphasised the presence of land and water spirits and the potent influence of mogat—the spirits of the recently deceased, believed capable of causing misfortune or illness. Central to Dani cosmology is the concept of edai-egen, the “seeds of singing,” a soul-like essence located beneath the sternum and vulnerable during severe sickness or injury.

Until the introduction of metal tools in the 1960s, Dani material culture relied on stone, bone, pig tusk, wood, and bamboo. Axes (kapak) and adzes were essential implements, while gourds served as containers in the absence of pottery. Traditional attire included the men’s koteka (penis sheath), often adorned with feathers, cowrie shells, or pig tusks, and women’s grass skirts (sili) or fibre coil skirts (yokal). Dani artistic work encompasses finely woven rattan bracelets (sekan), fibre arm and headbands (milak), cowrie and bone necklaces (mikak), and dramatic headpieces featuring pig tusks (suale). Wealth items included polished stone ye, salt slabs, and the iconic tree-bark fibre bags (noken, bilum).

Excellent condition. Surface wear consistent with age and use, with minimal abrasion to the blade. Fine polished patina. Size approx. 32,0cm x 13,4cm x 2,3cm.

Provenance: From a Dutch private collection; reportedly originally from the holdings of a now-closed ethnographic museum and foundation in the Netherlands.

For a similar example see:

Adze, Pace, Stichting Papua Erfgoed, Accession Number: EA/41/43 (https://www.papuaerfgoed.org/en/EA/41/43)

References and further reading:

Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Oceania, Karl Heider, edited Terence Hays, G.K.Hall & Company, 1991.

Wealth Items in the Western Highlands of West Papua, Anton Ploeg, Ethnology, Vol.43. No.4 (Autumn 2004), pp. 291-313.

Papua blood: An account of West Papua, Peter Bang, BoD, 16 Apr 2018.