Dani Ceremonial Stone Adze Blade

Dani People, Early 20th Century, Bailem Valley, Irian Jaya (Papua), Indonesia

A superb hand-carved and highly polished greenstone adze blade, fashioned from pibit-pibit—the prized chloromelanite sourced from the Cycloop Mountains. The blade displays a classic conical attachment end, a slender, tapering body, and a finely sharpened ovoid cutting edge. Variations of mineral content lend this dense, jade-like stone its rich spectrum of colour, here presenting as a deep, lustrous green with subtle veining. Such blades were traditionally mounted in wooden hafts and possessed remarkable functional power—capable even of carving the ironwood posts of chiefly dwellings.

More than utilitarian tools, these blades held significant ceremonial and economic value. Painstakingly shaped over long periods, they served as high-status objects, prestige trade items, and even a form of currency within Dani society. Until the introduction of metal tools in the 1960s, the Dani relied on stone, bone, pig tusk, wood, and bamboo for all daily and ritual implements.

The Dani of the central highlands—one of the region’s largest and most culturally intricate peoples—maintained a rich animist worldview, with strong beliefs in local land and water spirits and in the potent agency of ancestral ghosts (mogat). Prior to outside contact in the mid-20th century, they lived as agriculturalists, hunters, and gatherers, with a material culture renowned for its woven rattan ornaments, cowry-shell jewelry, bilum/noken bags, and elaborately decorated personal attire.

This exceptional blade embodies the technical mastery, ritual significance, and storied cultural heritage of the Dani highlands—a distinguished example of one of New Guinea’s most iconic traditional prestige objects.

Excellent condition. Chip. Age-related wear, minor abrasions, and a fine, smooth patina from long handling. Size approx. 15,0cm x 4,5cm x 3,0cm.

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 examples see:

Adze; blade, The British Museum, Accession Number: Oc,MCG.194 (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Oc-MCG-194)

Adze, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession Number: 1978.412.1486a,b (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/311926)

Adze (?); axe (?), The British Museum, Accession Number: Oc1964,03.190 (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Oc1964-03-190)

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.