Mendi Valley, Southern Highlands, PNG.

The bailer shell (melo amphora) is the most important pectoral in this region, worn mainly by men, but sometimes women of high status.  They follow trade routes that bring these shells hundreds of kilometres from the coast, and they become both important in ceremony but also as items of wealth. Most are shaped, with a fibre chord to hang around the neck; the best of these have geometric designs pecked into the surface, usually along the top edge.