Axe or hatchet used in dances and made for sale. The decorative design of the shaft is an argument against the axe's use as a combat weapon. The upper part with the inserted obsidian blade has been carved and painted to look like a human head. The characteristic headdress and the large elongated ears are features that can also be found on other objects from the Admiralty Islands, such as the legs of the camp bed.
The object was collected by Lieutenant Paul Werber from Freiburg, 1st Officer in the Imperial Navy who sailed the South Seas for a total of two years on the S.M.S. Cormoran and donated about 100 objects from various regions of Oceania to the museum.