The Kenyah and Kayan peoples of central Kalimantan use personal adornment in the form of tattoos and jewellery to mark status and wealth, signify maturity and to safeguard individuals from dark magic and an array of potentially dangerous spirits believed to inhabit the human world. Heavy brass ear ornaments, like this pair of squatting figures with spiralling headdresses, would have been inserted into enlarged piercings to elongate the earlobes of adult males and females. Imagery of anthropomorphic figures alluding to ancestral spirits and deities proliferates the art of Borneo in sculptural and two-dimensional forms. These pendants most likely represent a pair of ancestors and would have had powerful connotations with the fertility and protection bestowed on the living by benevolent forebears. They would have been a treasured item of a household’s family heirlooms, and worn to display fortune and power.