Arrow, Burun?

Other views of this artifact:

Accession Number:

1944.10.37

Country:

Sudan

Region:

Blue Nile Darfung

Cultural Group:

?Burun

Date Made:

By 1912

Materials:

Cane Plant , ?Ebony Wood Plant , Animal Hide Skin

Process:

Carved , Notched , Bound , Incised

Dimensions:

Total L = 1070 mm, diam shaft = 10, diam arrowhead = 8.2 mm, length shaft to upper binding = 880 mm [RTS 6/10/2004].

Weight:

31.7 g

Other Owners:

L. Gorringe and Mrs L. Gorringe

Field Collector:

L. Gorringe

PRM Source:

Mrs L. Gorringe

Acquired:

Donated October 1944

Collected Date:

1902 - 1912

Description:

Arrow consisting of a dark brown wooden point (Pantone 440C), broken at the tip, with a narrow round sectioned body that tapers out slightly to its junction with the shaft. Four deep oblique notches have been cut into the upper part of the arrowhead on either side, with clear cutting marks still visible. The surface is glossy in places, and has a slightly crazed layer which could represent either surface wear or added poison. The wood is possibly ebony. This has been hafted onto a long shaft, made from a length of jointed yellow bamboo cane with 7 segments (Pantone 7509C). The exact method of hafting is not clear, as the junction of arrowhead and shaft is obscured by a narrow strip of cream hide (Pantone 7506C), wound several times around the body to bind these two elements together, with the lower end of the strip tucked under itself to keep it in place. There is a second strip just above the base of the shaft; this is reddish brown in colour (Pantone 438C), and the lower end of the binding is loose. The butt end of the arrow has been nocked, with a deep rectangular slot cut into opposite sides. The object is complete, except for the tip of the arrowhead. It has a weight of 31.7 grams, and a total length of 1070 mm; the shaft is 880 mm long from its end up to the binding around the base of the arrowhead. The arrowhead has a maximum diameter of 8.2 mm, while the shaft has a diameter of 10 mm.

Collected by L. Gorringe at some time between 1902 and 1912, possibly from Darfung, and donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum by his wife, Mrs L. Gorringe.

For a group of bows collected by Gorringe, and possibly from the Burun, see 1944.10.28-34; for additional Burun arrows, see 1944.10.34-71.

Currently on display in the Upper Gallery, case 14A.

Rachael Sparks 29/8/2005.

Primary Documentation:

Accession Book Entry [p. 375] - Mrs L. GORRINGE, Rosaries Farm, Ngong, Kenya . Specimens collected by her late husband, Captain L. Gorringe, M.C., in the ANGLO-EGYPTIAN SUDAN between 1902 and 1912. Undocumented. [p. 383] 1944.10.34-71 - [1 of ] Thirty-eight arrows, all of the same type: cane shafts deeply notched, not feathered, the heads ebony spikes tanged into the shaft and tapering to the point. Above the notch, which is almost immediately below a joint in the cane, and at the opposite end where the head is inserted, the shafts are bound with a narrow strip of thin membrane. The ebony heads are round in section and varying in length, the extremes being, from above the shaft binding to the tip, 4 1/4" (with long shaft) and 24 5/8" (with short shaft); all are carved towards the tip end, either with an all-over criss-cross pattern more or less shallowly incised, or with two rows of oblique notches cut alternately on the two sides of the point so as to give it a spiral turn. In a few specimens the shaft is incised in various patterns (owner’s marks?). Lengths varying between 3' 6 3/4" and 3' 1". Same data [Probably the BURUN of DAR FUNG]. (In some specimens the tips of the ebony heads are broken or the shaft bindings loose or missing).
Added Accession Book Entry [p. 382] - A21.F16.17-18 [red biro].

Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the object catalogue cards ['Weapons - offensive - Archery - Arrows' RTS 23/7/2004].

Written on object - BURUN tribe, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. d.d. Mrs Gorringe [RTS 6/10/2004].