An Ancient Chinese Mirror Design Reflected in Modern Melanesian Art

In vol. 9, no. 3 of The Far Eastern Quarterly, Alphonse Riesenfeld called attention to “Some Probable Bronze-Age Influences in Melanesian Culture.” His point of departure was a stone ax from Bougainville in the Solomon Islands showing traces of derivation from bronze axes of types known from Indonesia, and suggesting analogies with trunnion axes of the bronze and iron ages from regions as remote as the Near East and Europe. It seems appropriate, therefore, to introduce in this place another comparison, of a slightly different order, between certain artifacts of modern or recent times in Melanesia and artifacts from the ancient bronze-age art of the Far East.