Iban Dayak Bamboo-Bound Trophy Human Skull Bowl

Iban Dayak people, early to mid-20th century, Central Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia

Exceptional and evocative trophy assemblage comprising a partial human skull bound with bamboo or rattan wickerwork and set within a deep wooden bowl. The exterior of the bowl is finely engraved with a pair of aso—mythical dog-like creatures combining attributes of dog, serpent, and dragon. In Iban visual culture, the aso symbolizes protection, vigilance, and elevated status, and traditionally its use was restricted to the nobility. Although doglike in posture, the creatures’ elongated, sinuous bodies and spiral motifs around their jaws evoke serpentine and dragon forms. 

The Dayak are a broad group of ethnic communities native to the interior forests of Borneo, on both the Indonesian and Malaysian sides. Historically, many Dayak groups practised headhunting—a ritual tradition known as ngayau.

The Iban, also called Sea Dayaks, form one of the best-known Dayak subgroups. Renowned as formidable warriors, the Iban conducted headhunting raids well into the early colonial era. Trophy skulls were displayed in longhouses as emblems of prowess, spiritual potency, and communal protection. In some longhouses these ancestral relics remain, with the most recent examples believed to date from World War II, when Japanese soldiers were taken as war trophies.

Good condition. Wear commensurate with age and use. Minor wormholes and small natural imperfections. The trophy human skull and the wooden bowl are possibly from different periods, the latter likely somewhat later in date. Size approx. 21,0cm x 18,0cm x 15,5cm.

Provenance: Dutch private collection.

NB! All of our human osteological specimens are historical ethnographic or ceremonial artefacts (e.g., kapalas, kanglings). We do not sell, buy, or handle human osteological material of unknown origin or items that do not clearly meet these criteria. This policy adheres to Finnish law regarding the sanctity of graves (Criminal Code of Finland 563/1998, Chapter 17, Section 12).

References and further reading:

Who invented the Dayaks?: historical case studies in art, material culture and ethnic identity from Borneo, Dianne Margaret Tillotson, Thesis, The Australian National University, 1994. (https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/116158)

Of Jars and Gongs: Two Keys to Ot Danum Dayak Cosmology, Raymond Corbey, C. Zwartenkot Art Books, 2016.

The Airmen and the Headhunters: A True Story of Lost Soldiers, Heroic Tribesmen and the Unlikeliest Rescue of World War II, Judith M. Heimann, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.