110
FIG. 10 (below): Amulet
of protective female spirit.
Kayan? Sarawak or
Kalimantan (Borneo).
19th century or earlier.
Copper alloy. H: 10.2 cm.
Collected by Michael Palmieri, late
1970s.
Jack Sadovnic Collection.
Photo: Mark A. Johnson.
Harrisson speculates this could be a mask, adding
that the Kayans would certainly consider it
that, whether it was intended to be so or not,
since it is an effi gy fi gure (Harrisson 1964: 167).
However, given the considerable attention to
detail shown in the rest of the fi gure, in the absence
of any defi ned facial perimeter or means
of attachment, there is no reason to believe that
this is anything other than stylized facial features.
The eyes are perhaps the most signifi cant
feature here. Each is rendered as a barely perceptible
round spiral with a large central iris/
pupil. This is an unusual confi guration to say
the least, and one is hard-pressed to fi nd a comparable
treatment in Borneo or anywhere else.
However, Kayan stylized aso earrings often have
somewhat similar saucer-like eyes with a nearly
identical central iris/pupil surrounded by a thin
ring (fi g. 9).
Harrisson is clearly struck by the considerable
age of the Imun Ajo’ fi gure. He describes it as
“Almost olive brown with the patina of time”
and as having “that unshakeable authenticity of
a long upriver pedigree” (Harrisson 1964: 159).
While no one disputes this upriver pedigree, just
how far back it actually goes is an open question.
Harrisson states the piece came from Tama
Bulan’s wife, the daughter of the chief Lai’ing
Anyi, but says nothing more about its lineage.
In discussing its antiquity, he seems to run parallel
to Kayan perceptions that the sculpture and
the subject are one and the same and thus together
stretch back into untold generations. This
predisposition to seeing great age may in part
relate to his archaeological work in Sarawak in
which he was probing the early habitation of the
area, a process that led to the expedition which
uncovered the 37,000-year-old Homo sapiens
Deep Skull in the Niah Cave in 1958 (Curnoe
2016, Heimann 2015). Harrisson mentions an
elusive and undefi ned “Borneo bronze age,” of
which there is little trace in the archaeological
record, but no particular evidence places the
Imun Ajo’ fi gure within that context. The Kayan
and other Dayak peoples have a long tradition
of metalworking, especially in copper alloy,
though this is usually applied to ear ornaments
and other items of adornment. Various waves of
migration dating back thousands of years have
made up the population that is now called Dayak.
Some of the more recent that may have had
a signifi cant infl uence on metalworking came to
Borneo only around 1,500 to 1,000 years ago,
likely from southern China. Since the bronze age
in China ended approximately 2,500 years ago,
they certainly would have brought their relatively
advanced understanding of metal technology
with them, and they, or perhaps an earlier migration
wave, may well have rendered moot the
need for an indigenous bronze age. The Kayan
creation myth that features Imun Ajo’ includes
reference to early ancestors who introduce metal,
which may support this theory.
That said, while Dayak copper alloy fi gures are
not unknown—most are small charms (fi g. 10)—
the only other Borneo fi gure known that is even
vaguely comparable to Imun Ajo’ is a hollow-cast
copper alloy female holding a baby (fi g. 11) deriving
from the Upper Wahau River in East Kalimantan,
which is now in the collection of the Honolulu
Museum of Art (De Grunne 2015: 5–6).
It is larger and stylistically quite different, and
the two are related to one another only insofar as
they are both copper alloy and both entirely unlike
anything else known from Borneo. The Honolulu
fi gure has been subjected to scientifi c date
testing with the extraordinary result of the fourth
to sixth century AD. Despite its age, the surface
FIG. 8 (below left): Ossuary
shrine fi gure.
Dayak, northeastern
Kalimantan (Borneo),
Indonesia. 19th century or
earlier.
Wood, shell. H: 91.4 cm.
Ex Tambaran Gallery, 1988.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, gift of
William E. and Bertha L. Teal,
inv. 1994.411.
FIG. 9 (below):
Earring, belaung jangin
kalung tuang.
Kenyah or Kayan,
Kalimantan (Borneo),
Indonesia. 19th century.
Copper alloy. W: 4.1 cm.
National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra, inv. 85.1583.
OBJECT HISTORY