axe
- Museum number
- Af1970,12.41
- Description
-
Axe (ato) made of iron and wood. The socket for the head is burned through the shaft using a piece of red-hot iron.
- Dimensions
-
Height: 56.40 centimetres
-
Width: 27 centimetres
-
Depth: 7.50 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- "Axes are much prized but few men are fortune enough to own one as the traded blades are not easily obtained from neighbouring tribes. They are used principally for cutting open the nests of wild bees in hollow trees in order to extract the honey. Without an axe it is very difficult to break open a nest; when no axe is available a pointed stone will be used.
An axe is also useful for a wider range of other purposes such as chopping firewood, cutting a bow stave, cutting the heavy bones of large game animal, cutting and driving in the pegs used in climbing baobab trees. This axe has been frequently used for cutting the pegs required for climbing baobab trees. The wear on the wooden shaft near the point where the end of the metal blade comes out was caused by driving the pegs into the trunk of the baobab tree. [...] The blade may be taken out to be used as a base on which arrow-heads are trimmed or as a scraper for removing flesh, fat and hair from animal hides which are to be made into clothing or sleeping mats [...].
The head of the axe is set directly in the wooden shaft, which has to be very carefully selected if it is not to split as soon as the axe is used. At the point where the blade passes through the shaft the wood must be knotty: it is often the base of a tree, the part from which the roots radiate out" (p. 32)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1970
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Af1970,12.41