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What features appeared on sacred boards from the Gulf of Papua?
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Oceanic art and architecture
An Aboriginal Australian decorating a tightly woven dilly bag with white, yellow, and ochre (red) paints, Northern Territory, Australia, 1948.
Sacred boards from the Gulf of Papua are typically two-dimensional, low-relief carvings or paintings that feature ancestral or supernatural representations. Their specific design features vary by location:12
- Western Gulf: Boards are often oval-shaped and quasi-human in form, featuring a face at the top, an indication of a neck, and vertical slots on the body that suggest arms flanking vertical uprights or drawn-up legs. These boards were kept in shrines as male and female pairs, often with human skulls suspended from the uprights.1
- Eastern Gulf: Boards also feature faces at the top, but the body area is replaced by a vertical sequence of floating, highly stylized abstract designs that represent anatomic elements. These boards were not used as skull racks.1
Across the region, these boards are characterized by a curvilinear style, which utilizes curving lines to form abstract patterns like spirals, circles, and swirls while avoiding straight lines and right angles. These boards are typically decorated on only one side.2