Photos:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/Zardiel/image1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/Zardiel/image2.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/Zardiel/image3.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/Zardiel/image4.jpg
I came into ownership of these a few months ago, but I don't really know much about them. All I know is that they're about 100 years old, and belonged to a real cannibal tribe. The person who owned them before me was an 'eccentric' friend of my mum's, and she passed away last year.
Apparently, the story is that a vicar friend of hers made a pilgrimage to whatever country this tribe was in, in an attempt to introduce Christianity to them. And on his first visit, he got on really well with them, and they gave him these spears and shield as a gift, which he brought back to England.
Then he visited the tribe a second time... and they ate him.
I don't know how much of that story is embellished, but supposedly that's what happened. I have no idea what tribe it was, or what part of the world they were in. I've had a look online, and there seem to be a lot of Indian shield designs with these 4 'buttons' on the front, but that's as close as I've been able to get.
Anyone got any ideas?
The spears look very much like several in the British Museum's collections which come from Assam and Burma. Note specifically the nubs on each side of the spearhead's blade, the style of the socket, general shape of the blade, length, and (of course) the fur on the shafts. I feel reasonably certain that is what these two spears are (and their ownership by an English man about 100 years ago would make perfect sense, given the colonial history of these regions).
I'm far less certain about the shield. This one from the British Museum's collection has similarities: note the multiple bosses (round metal protrusions) on the shield's face, a rather odd detail that I'm not familiar with. It's from India, which increases the likelihood that it could be acquired at the same time as the spears.
You might try digging further through the B.M.'s collection. A search for 'shield' between 1800-2000 returns 65 pages of results, and I don't have time to wade through them all. You might find a closer match!
What does this mean? I think it's most likely that these weapons were acquired rather less dramatically. Unless my British colonial history is way off, I don't believe Assam was filled with cannibal tribes c. 1900. It seems more likely they were brought home as a souvenir from a trip to India. To my mind, that's still a pretty awesome slice of history to hold in your hands!
