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Lot 669
A sword "surik"
Estimated Value:
4.500 € - 6.500 €
Result:
incl. Premium and VAT
Description:
Indonesia East, Timor, Atoni or Tetum, 18th cent.L. 82 cm
Steel, horn, hair (goat), wood, lime. A very rare, old sword from Timor. Among the possessions of the Atoni (Atoin Meto) on Timor, the sword, surik, is of particular importance on the male side. It embodies status and warriorism per se. The term surik is derived from sanskr. curiga, “sword”, other derivatives are corik or sonri. This representative sword probably dates from the 18th century due to the dated blade, the uniform appearance, the provenance (Swiss private property, acquired before 1880) and the patina. The blade is of European origin (probably Solingen manufacture) and bears the signet of the VOC (United East India Trading Company) with the date 1745; a professional reworking from an even older blade (17th century) can be assumed. It is slightly curved and has a narrow fuller. Significant signs of wear indicate heavy use. It is shortened in the front area, which is less due to breakage than to deliberate “pruning” for ease of handling and comfortable carrying. The handle is made of dark buffalo horn. The spiral motifs carved in low relief and accentuated with lime paint can easily be related to art forms from Irian Jaya (Asmat). The pommel, whose flat shape is based on an abstracted animal head with a torn open throat or the head of a hornbill, is typical of Timor and bears red-colored goat hair, probably from a sacrificial animal. Above the thickened base you can see the braided knot, which is also very important for Toraja art. The mouth of the two-part wooden scabbard shows an abstract otherworldly ideal village with the Pleiades motif (the spirals) as a symbol of the axis mundi, or a world tree with head motifs - the interpretations here are contradictory, but certainly related in meaning. The abstracted knob ultimately goes back to the hornbill or another symbolic animal.
Collected from an old German private collection since the 1950s - Part. traces of wear, slightly chipped
The art of the Atoin / Atoni tends to be dual, or “bipolar” and axial, in accordance with cosmology. The dominant motifs here are the crocodile and the tortoise, both in abstract form. On the male side, the Adigen, maramba, traced themselves back to the crocodile uis neno, and one of their main insignia was the tortoise, in traditional symbolism the bearer of the middle world. The essential social basis of ritual warfare, especially headhunting in connection with rites of passage, megalithic settlements and elaborate house constructions is a hierarchical social order and stringent clan consciousness. On Timor, the specialized warrior or champion, meo, is responsible for organizing and moderating the ritualized warfare and the taking of life according to the adat. Meo was a specialized warrior rank on Timor, both among the Tetum and the Atoni. The battles between the kingdoms of ancient Timor were strictly ritualized. Before a battle, the meo stood in front of the ranks of warriors in full regalia and began to stir up the atmosphere with war dances, praising the courage of their tribe and insulting their opponents. They then withdrew and the opposing parties began to shoot at each other from a certain distance - originally with bows and arrows, later with firearms. As soon as a man was killed or seriously injured, the fight usually ended.
