a group of 6 Upper Sepik Arrows, Upper Sepik River, East Sepik (and possibly Sandaun) Province, Papua New Guinea.Of classical form, the arrows with black palm foreshafts deeply incised and mostly pigmented (or with remains of pigment) in classical patterns associated with the region; the heads made of sharpened bamboo blades and lashed to the foreshafts. The arrow typology of the Upper Sepik actually extends all the way to the Star Mountains in the South, Lake Copiago and the Hunstien range to the east and as far north as the region around Aitape in Sandaun province. The deeply incised motifs are clearly connected to styles from the North Coast usually found in German museums as “Berlinhoffen’ and likely across the old German/Dutch border. These designs are quite archaic and echoes of them can be seen on shields of the May River and Yellow River due to their remote locations. Many of the arrows collected in the field in this region by Douglas Newton in the 1960’s and now at the American Museum of Natural History are extremely similar. These were acquired by Marc Seidler from a private Australian collection in the 1980’s and were field collected in the 1960’s or early 1970’s. Acquired by Marc Seidler from a private Australian collection in the 1980’s and were field collected in the 1960’s or early 1970’s.

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