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The first measurement references the total length of the arrow, the
second describes the head length from the end of the shaft. Objects are described from left to right.
1. is a three-pronged arrow with palmwood heads tipped with lashed-on bone barbs and was stated to be from Malaita by the supplier, who bought it on a trip to the Solomons in the mid-1980s. It is probably a fishing arrow, although in New Guinea these types are also used for shooting birds, small marsupials, and fruit bats. (141/40.5 cm).
2. has a palmwood head to which sixteen small bone slivers are attached with bast as barbing. It is decorated with a whipping of red and gold orchid fiber about halfway down the head and at the base of the head where it is inserted into the light reed shaft. Probably from Bougainville.
(137/30 cm).
3. has a blackpalm head with twelve small barbs carved into the head and an aperture cut into it. Probably from Bougainville. (133/35 cm).
4. has a blackpalm head with 16 barbs attached with bast. Probably from Bougainville.
(143/29 cm).
5. is an example of the most complex type I have seen from the Solomons, with numerous small bone barbs attached with bast that covers the wood of the head. It is heavier than most Solomons arrows and would be used only at close range. Von Wittinsburg (1968) illustrates a similar example with the openwork at the base of the head and quotes Frizzi (1914) as saying this type is typical of the Nasiosi of southern Bougainville. (129/34.5 cm).
6. has a palmwood head with twenty bone barbs attached with bast and is also most likely to have come from Bougainville. (143/28 cm).
My assessment of the origin of the above arrows is based on examples in the Basel Museum of Anthropology illustrated by von Wittinsburg. It will be noticed that the arrowheads of 1 and 2 are only inserted into the reed shaft without any whipping. They would break at the juncture when striking any object and could not be picked up and shot back by the enemy.
7. has a lightly carved palmwood foreshaft inserted into a long bone tip. Possibly Upper Fly River. (142/37 cm).
8. has a rounded arch-shaped cross section with six barbs on the flat side facing us and incised carving on the base of the head. This type is typical of the Min people of western Papua New Guinea between the headwaters of the Fly and Sepik Rivers. (131/33 cm).
9. has a long, lightly toothed and fragile bone head attached to a palmwood foreshaft with red painted native thread. The foreshaft is carved with designs filled with white clay. I believe this to be from the Nomad River region adjacent to the Min area. (142/42.5 cm).
10. is similar in design and cross-section to N° 8 except it has a bone tip and I would place it as of Min origin. It has eight barbs. (129/33 cm).
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