This is an ancient, pre-contact food pounder from the area of Papua New Guinea's west coastal mountains that Margaret Mead called the Mountain Arapesh. Such pounders were used to mash yams, sweet potatoes, taro and bananas. This example has as deep and as fine a patina as one could ever expect. The ancestral face is sweet with the classic Arapesh "bow-tie" nose with pierced septum. The piece is 17 ½" in height. sold