Sword "surik"

Estimated Value:

3.000 € - 5.000 €

Result:

incl. Premium and VAT

Description:

Indonesia East, Timor, Central, Atoin Meto, 18th cent. or older
L. 80 cm
Steel, horn, wood, hair (goat). A very old, rare surik sword from Timor, which plays an important role as an object of prestige among the Atoin Meto. Among the possessions of the Atoni (Atoin Meto) on Timor, the surik sword is of particular importance. It embodies status and warriorship per se. The term surik is derived from the Sanskrit curiga, ‘sword’, other derivatives are corik or sonri. This sword as a whole probably dates back to the 18th century. The single-edged, fullered back blade with a shortened front section is of European origin (probably made in Solingen) and is a professional reworking of an even older blade (17th century), as it was mass-produced in Solingen in the 16th and 17th centuries and imported to Indonesia by the VOC (‘United East India Trading Company’) in the 18th century. Significant signs of wear indicate heavy use; the shortening is intentional (no breakage). The handle is made of dark buffalo horn. The spiral motifs carved in low relief, formerly accentuated with lime colour, are a Timorese expression of ancient Bronze Age decorative forms. The pommel, whose flat shape is based on an abstracted animal head with a torn open maw or a hornbill's head, is typical of Timor and bears red-coloured goat hair (worn), probably from a sacrificial animal. The central ‘eye’ is clearly recognisable and can also be found on sword hilts in southern Philippine treasure finds from the 9th and 10th centuries. The thickened mouth of the two-part wooden scabbard shows an abstract ideal village with the Pleiades motif (the spirals) as a symbol of the axis mundi, or a world tree with head motifs - the interpretations are contradictory but related in meaning. The foot of the scabbard is also thickened and carved in low relief. The scabbard features a quadruple spiral in bas-relief - symbolising renewal and initiation rituals that make the initiated warrior a ‘moderator’ for the renewal of life energy. The abstracted pommel ultimately goes back to the hornbill or another symbolic animal.
Collected from an old German private collection since the 1950s
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 turtle, 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 specialised warrior or champion, meo, was responsible for organising and moderating the ritualised warfare and the taking of life according to the adat. Meo was a specialised warrior rank on Timor, among both the Tetum and the Atoni. Its symbol is the surik

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