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Lot 69A
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Taino Stone Celt Group - Three Pre-Columbian Axe Heads, Caribbean
Taino Stone Celt Group - Three Pre-Columbian Axe Heads, Caribbean
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Pre-Columbian, Greater Antilles, Taino, ca. 1000–1500 CE. A trio of ground stone celts, hewn and polished from dense river cobbles into the petaloid forms that served the Taino as both tool and emblem of labor. The largest, a buff sandstone blade, swells from a constricted poll toward a broadened, gently curved bit, its surface worn smooth by patient abrasion. Its companions, one a slate-gray elongated wedge, the other a compact mottled blade notched along one flank, share the same economy of form: no superfluous gesture, only the working edge and the mass behind it. Hafted to wooden handles, such axes felled trees, hollowed canoes, and cleared garden plots across the islands of the Greater Antilles. Their making, the slow pecking and grinding of intractable stone, embodied a discipline that bound the everyday to the enduring. Size of largest: 5.9" W x 4.2" H (15.0 cm W x 10.7 cm H).

The Taino, who flourished across Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Bahamas until European contact, prized polished stone celts as essentials of forest and field. The labor-intensive petaloid blade, produced by pecking and grinding rather than flaking, was integral to clearing the conuco garden mounds on which their agriculture depended and to fashioning the dugout canoes that linked island communities. Beyond utility, finely finished celts carried prestige, and the most exceptional examples entered ritual contexts, an echo of the reverence the Taino accorded the act of cultivation itself.

Provenance: ex-private collection, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, USA, collected from 2010 to 2015

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Item # 198665

  • Condition: Fair. Chipping, nicks, and abrasions as shown, all commensurate with age. Scattered earthen deposits to surfaces.

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by Artemis Fine Arts
June 25, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
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Artemis Fine Arts

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$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000