Areca nut mortar

Reference : 101535

Ebony wood
Dimension: Length: 20cm
Presumed period: ^19thcentury
D’Entrecasteaux Islands, Iwa or Trobriand Islands
Papua New Guinea

Provenance:
Collected by Captain W.C. Thomson circa 1900
Pickles Sale, Sydney, September 5, 1986, Thomson Collection, Lot 147
Harry Beran Collection (HB 325)
Marcia and John Friede. The Jolika Collection. Rye, New York

Bibliography:
Beran, Harry. 1988. Betel-chewing Equipment of East New Guinea.
Princes Risborough, Bucks: Shire Publications.
Page 55, reproduced N° 78

Newton, Douglas. 1975. Massim: Art of the Massim Area, New Guinea.
New York: The Museum of Primitive Art. Fig. 28 for a similar model.

More details

Carved in the shape of a pirogue used for the Kula, this mortarboard is similar to models found on the Trobriand, Iwa and d’Entrecasteaux islands.
Ornaments, prows and sterns decorated with stylized bird heads.

Most of the mortars carved before Western contact depict animals, drums or pirogues.

Betel mortars, with the help of pestles, are used to grind the areca nut, eaten with the betel leaf, and the lime obtained by burning coral or shellfish. They are used by old people who have lost their teeth.

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