Pre-Columbian, Caribbean / Florida, Taino people, ca. 10th to 15th century CE. A set of three finely-carved stone hand axes (sometimes called celts) which were meant to be ceremonial objects - part of a ceremonial hatchet called a "manaya." One blade is formed from a mottled pistachio-hued stone with darker inclusions; one exhibits a sage-green color; and the last has a chocolate-brown hue. These blades would have been hafted onto a wooden handle, although there are limited examples where the blade and handle are all made form a single piece of stone. The Yoruba African people that the Spanish brought as slaves to the Caribbean found these stones in fields and linked them to the Yoruba deity Shango because of their thunderbolt shape. Size of largest (pistachio stone): 4.125" L (10.5 cm).

Similar examples are illustrated in "Taino: Art and Culture from the Caribbean", NY, Museo del Barrio, 1998, Fig. 24. The Metropolitan Museum of Art also has a similar example: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/317165

Provenance: private Chicago, Illinois, USA collection; ex-Arte Primitivo Gallery, New York, New York, USA

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All three stones have age-commensurate surface wear, small chips to handles and blade edges, and some discoloration, otherwise intact and very good. Old white inventory stickers on each stone.