Three spherical ritual stones and stone mortar ·  Papua New Guinea - Highlands · ID: 3044141

Description

Cults associated with sacred stones were once prevalent throughout the highlands.

Sacred stones included oddly shaped river rocks or unearthed objects created by ancient highland cultures, such as mortars, pestles, club heads and zoomorphic figurines. Ancestral and other spirits resided in these earthly forms, establishing a link with the spiritual world.

The Enga people believed sacred stones were handed down from the “sky people” who came to earth and created mankind; others thought they were the petrified bones of the ancestors.

Stored in ritual houses or buried at sacred sites, stones were “fed” with the blood or fat of pigs on ritual occasions.

The object Three spherical ritual stones and stone mortar with the object ID 3044141 was last part of the auction 89th Tribal Art Auction at July 7, 2018 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 25 achieved a sales price of EUR 800.

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Comparing literature

Friede, John et. al. (ed.), New Guinea Highlands, New York 2017, p. 32, ill. 1.23A and p. 424