Arrow, Burun?
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1944.10.40
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 , Socketed , Bound , Decorated , Incised
Dimensions:
Total L = 1068; arrowhead L - 195, diam = 9; shaft L = 873, diam = 10 x 9.6, L nock = 10, L bindinig = 20 mm [RTS 24/5/2005].
Weight:
39.3 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 ebony arrowhead (Pantone black 4C), the very tip of which may be broken, with a narrow elongated body that swells out near its centre then narrows again to its base.
This has been decorated around the upper part with 2 sets of 3 notches down the sides, cut as alternating oblique lines.
Shaving marks are clearly visible down the body.
The base of the tang has been fitted into the socketed top of a yellow cane shaft with 6 segments along its body and a slightly oval section (Pantone 7509C).
The surface has been smoothed, and then shaved near its top; this area is usually covered with narrow hide binding to prevent the shaft splitting on impact, but in this case, the binding is missing, while the shaft has split several times at this point.
There is a second split lower down the shaft, then another section of binding just above the nocked butt, which has 2 rectangular notches cut into opposite sides.
This is brown with reddish coloration, probably from added pigment or fixative (Pantone 4715C).
The object is nearly complete, except for the missing tip and binding.
It has a weight of 39.3 grams and a total length of 1068 mm.
The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 195 mm and a diameter of 9 mm, while the wooden shaft is 873 mm long, with a diameter of 10 by 9.6 mm and a nock length of 10 mm; the binding is 20 mm long around the lower end.
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.
Rachael Sparks 29/8/2005.
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.
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].
Pitt Rivers Museum label - AFRICA, Sudan. Probably Burun tribe of Darfung. Cane arrow with ebony point. Don. Mrs L. Gorringe. 1944.10.40 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 24/5/2005].
Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.40 [RTS 24/5/2005].
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].
Pitt Rivers Museum label - AFRICA, Sudan. Probably Burun tribe of Darfung. Cane arrow with ebony point. Don. Mrs L. Gorringe. 1944.10.40 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 24/5/2005].
Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.40 [RTS 24/5/2005].
