Arrows of Melanesia: a neglected art form

Arrows formerly in the collection of the late Leo Fleischman of Sydney. All are fighting arrows.

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. Black River, Western Province, Papua New Guinea. This arrow has a carved blackpalm head painted with blue, white, and red pigments with designs incised on the reed shaft in black pigment.
(124.2/47.2 cm). Cat. No. LF/X100A.
2. Frieda River, a tributary of the Upper Sepik River, Papua New Guinea, This arrow has a round palmwood head with a row of barbs on one side, painted in red ochre. (135.3/36.2 cm).
Cat. No. LF/X105A.
3. Mendi Valley of the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. It has a blackpalm head carved in a spiral design. Other designs carved into the head are filled with white and red pigments. This type usually has a human bone tip, but it is missing in this example. (101.2/29.1 cm). Cat. No. LF/X24B.
4. Bougainville, the northernmost of the Solomon Islands chain, although it is politically linked to Papua New Guinea. This arrow has two sets of four wooden barbs attached to the palmwood head with bast and has incised markings on the shaft. (121.5/34.2 cm).
Cat. No. LF/X118B.
5. Provenance is given only as New Guinea. The head is of palmwood shaped rather like a narrow-bladed bamboo arrowhead and has designs carved into the base of the blade. (134.1/40.2 cm).
Cat. No. LF/X103A.
6. Nomad River area, Western Province, Papua New Guinea. It has a long bone head on a carved blackpalm foreshaft, decorated in parts with red paint. The lower part of the foreshaft has finely carved lines filled with white pigment.
(137.7/39.4 cm). Cat. No. LF/X40B.
7. Telefomin (in the mountain Ok language subfamily area) in the Victor Emmanuel Range in Papua New Guinea. This arrow has a round palmwood head carved in a design similar to ones found elsewhere. (131.2/40.8 cm).
Cat. No. LF/X68A.
8. An example of from an area of regional variation in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. This type is mentioned in the text of the article but otherwise not illustrated. It is from the southwest of the Province, probably from the Gimi language group of the East-Central Family. The Gimi name that I collected for this design is aatitoraama. A comparison with the plates of the other Eastern Highlands arrows will show that it does belong to the Eastern Highlands arrow family but has a distinctive look of its own. The shafts of southwestern arrows tend to be noticeably thinner than those of other parts of the Eastern Highlands and seem to be of a distinctive hard variety of reed (species uncertain). As in the present example, the skin of the shaft is often not shaved off in this region, in contrast to arrow shafts from the rest of the province. The long red and black plaited orchid fiber collar at the base of the arrowhead is also characteristic of the southwestern arrow, as are the small notches cut into each corner of the block immediately below the barbs. The head, of palmwood decorated with blue and red pigments, is cruciform in cross section, each set of barbs alternating at right angles with the next set. (136.9/43 cm). Cat. No. LF/X86A.
9. Northwest Mianmin language group, a mountain people north and west of the Telefomin language group in western Papua New Guinea. The head of this arrow is of a rounded arch-shaped cross section with fifteen barbs on the flat facing side and incised carving on its base.
(129.6/36.8 cm). Cat. No. LF/X110A.
10. Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, probably from near the township of Tari. It has a palmwood foreshaft carved with designs filled with red and white pigment and a bone tip. (108.1/23.2 cm). Cat. No. LF/X23A.
11. Mendi Valley, Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea. It also has a palmwood foreshaft lightly carved with decorative designs filled with white pigment and a human bone tip.
(119.3/44 cm). Cat. No. LF/X24C.