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Ceremonial Object in the Shape of an Ax

Period: Bronze and Iron Age

Date: ca. 100 B.C.–A.D. 300

Culture: Indonesia (Sulawesi)

Medium: Bronze

Dimensions: H. 41 3/8 in. (105.1 cm); W. 26 1/2 in. (67.3 cm)

Classification: Metalwork

Credit Line: Purchase, George McFadden Gift and Edith Perry Chapman Fund, 1993

Accession Number: 1993.525

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 244
This remarkable ceremonial object, a conceptual as well as technical tour de force, almost certainly functioned as a percussive instrument to be suspended and struck. Striations on the flanged neck, resembling the raised markings of crocodile skin, are combined with lozenge patterning and may have helped secure the rope from which the instrument was hung. An anthropomorphic face with spiral banding and a sawtooth pattern appear on the reverse. The object bears comparison with the so-called Makassar Axe in the National Museum of Indonesia, found in southern Sulawesi a century ago.
[ Doris Wiener Gallery , New York, by 1991, sold to McFadden Brothers, 1991]; [ George McFadden , McFadden Brothers, New York, 1991 until 1993; sold to MMA ]

Timelines
Southeast Asia, 1-500A.D.
Southeast Asia, 1000 B.C.-1 A.D.

The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West
"Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 1993–1994": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 52, no. 2 (Fall, 1994)
One Met. Many Worlds.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Spanish)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Russian)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Portuguese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Korean)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Japanese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Italian)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (German)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (French)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Chinese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Arabic)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide
"The Arts of South and Southeast Asia": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 51, no. 4 (Spring, 1994)
The Art of South and Southeast Asia: A Resource for Educators

Asian Art (35,669)
Bronze (12,267)
Ceremonial objects (25)
Copper alloy (19,083)
Metal (70,550)
Metalwork (14,759)
Asia (70,875)
Indonesia (2,950)
Sulawesi (90)
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