{"id":"MUS2026-275","label":"New Britain fish-head pair","people_or_site":"New Britain; people unrecorded","country_current":"Papua New Guinea","historic_region":"New Britain (museum attribution uncertain)","macroregion":"Oceania / Sahul","local_name":"","source_term":"Schwirrholz","source_language":"German","object_description":"Two closely related wooden blades with chain-and-zigzag carving and stylized fish-head ends; one uses an eye-hole, the other paired binding notches.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"mimo_gnm_mir1283_1284","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://mimo-international.com/MIMO/doc/IFD/OAI_GNM_907602/schwirrholz","page_or_plate":"MIR1283; MIR1284; OAI_GNM_907602/OAI_GNM_907639","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Broad New Britain anchor; museum attribution is questioned.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"A fish's head becomes engineering here. On the plainer of the two blades the fish's eye is the cord hole — the line runs straight through the socket where the eye should be. On its more elaborate twin the eye is left whole and the line bites instead at a pair of notches cut into the edge. Both keep their red paint and the same chain-and-zigzag banding running the length of the body.","pull_quote":"Anstelle des Auges Loch zum Durchziehen des Fadens.","pull_quote_translation":"In place of the eye is a hole for passing the cord through.","pull_quote_cite":"Germanisches Nationalmuseum, catalogue description, MIR 1283","term_gloss":"","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg, MIR 1283 and MIR 1284 (catalogue records via MIMO)","url":"https://mimo-international.com/MIMO/doc/IFD/OAI_GNM_907602/schwirrholz","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013034427/https://mimo-international.com/MIMO/doc/IFD/OAI_GNM_907602/schwirrholz"}],"source_citations":"Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg, MIR 1283 and MIR 1284 (catalogue records via MIMO)","source_display":"Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg, MIR 1283 and MIR 1284 (catalogue records via MIMO)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Two closely related wooden blades with chain-and-zigzag carving and stylized fish-head ends; one uses an eye-hole, the other paired binding notches.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"new britain","display_name":"New Britain fish-head pair","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest2/MUS2026-275_mimo_MIR1283.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest2/thumbs/MUS2026-275_mimo_MIR1283_thumb.jpg","credit":"Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg (MIR 1283/1284) — via MIMO","license":"License unstated — via MIMO; rehosted for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://mimo-international.com/MIMO/doc/IFD/OAI_GNM_907602/schwirrholz","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"MIR 1283: the fish-headed blade, its eye drilled as the cord hole.","last_modified":"2026-09-01","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest2/MUS2026-275_mimo_MIR1284.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest2/thumbs/MUS2026-275_mimo_MIR1284_thumb.jpg","credit":"Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg (MIR 1283/1284) — via MIMO","license":"License unstated — via MIMO; rehosted for non-commercial research","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Its mate MIR 1284, a cross-carved head above red-banded engraving."}]},"slug":"mus2026-275-new-britain-people-unrecorded"}