Pre-Columbian, Dominican Republic, Taino/Ciboney peoples, ca. 1000 to 1500 CE. A massive ceremonial stone celt or axe head, hand-carved from a mottled brown and black stone. The petaloid axe has a slender handle point with a conical tip, a long body with convex polished faces, and a wide, curved blade edge. This blade would have been hafted onto a wooden handle of a ceremonial hatchet called a "manaya," though there are only limited examples where the handle and blade are carved from a singular contiguous piece of stone. The Yoruba African people that the Spanish brought as slaves to the Caribbean found these stones in fields and linked them to the Yoruba deity Shango (sometimes Chango) because of their thunderbolt shape. They were used as a ritualistic object - part of a ceremonial hatchet called a "manaya." This huge celt was made from lovely stone that would have taken great skill to shape and polish. Size: 11.75" L x 3.25" W (29.8 cm x 8.3 cm)

Provenance: private southwestern Pennsylvania, USA collection, acquired prior to 2000

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#160203

Surface abrasions and fissures. Age and use commensurate surface wear. Natural stone inclusions and polished surface.