Ancestor skull "ndambirkus" ·  Westneuguinea / Westpapua (Irian Jaya), Asmat · ID: 3042078

Description

human skull, the lower jawbone tightly attached to the skull by grass fibre, the eye-sockets filled with beeswax, inserted with the grey seeds of Job’s-tear grass (“Coix lachryma-jobi”) and the red seeds of the crab’s eye vine (“Abrus precatorius”), slightly dam. (breakages at the cheekbones), additional: ornamental attachment from plant fibre cord and seed capsules (loose).
Just like normal household articles in Asmat culture human skulls were part of everyday life. Sometimes they were attached to cord and worn around the neck. Men carried the skulls with them in order to keep in contact with the ancestors. When sleeping they used the ancestor skulls as head rest.

The object Ancestor skull “ndambirkus” with the object ID 3042078 was last part of the auction 87th Tribal Art Auction at November 11, 2017 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 13 achieved a sales price of EUR 3,000.

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