Dinka parrying shield
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1931.66.10
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan?] [White Nile]
Cultural Group:
Dinka
Date Made:
By 1931
Materials:
Wood Plant
Process:
Carved , Burnt , Polished , Grooved
Dimensions:
L = 748, Max W = 87.5, Max Th = 83, W handle = 26 mm [RTS 10/1/2005].
Weight:
912.5 g
Local Name:
?kuerr kwerr ?quayre ?quer
Other Owners:
Collected by Evans-Pritchard sometime between December 1926 and June 1931, when he was working in Southern Sudan studying groups such as the Zande and Nuer [RTS 10/1/2005].
Field Collector:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
PRM Source:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Acquired:
Donated December 1931
Collected Date:
By 1931
Description:
Short wooden parrying shield, carved from a single piece of light orangey brown wood (Pantone 7512C).
This consists of a narrow body with swollen centre, tapering to a point at either end.
This swollen area represents the handle grip; this is convex at the back, while it has been hollowed out from its inside face, leaving a narrow rectangular handle running across the top.
Blackening around the inside walls of the grip suggests heated tools were used to remove the wood from this area.
The inner edge of this handle is convex, while the inside wall of the grip opposite is concave to allow room for the knuckles.
On the back of the shield, the body slopes down from this central area to the ends, while the opposite face is straight, and has a deep v-shaped groove carved along its length, stopping just before each end.
The surface has been polished throughout.
The shield is in good condition, being complete as well as intact.
It has a weight of 912.5 grams, and is 748 mm long.
The central grip area is 87.5 mm wide and 83 mm thick, while the handle is 26 mm wide.
Collected by Evans-Pritchard sometime between December 1926 and June 1931, when he was working in Southern Sudan studying groups such as the Zande and Nuer. Throughout the twentieth century the term ‘White Nile’ has been used to denote an administrative district immediately south of Khartoum. However at the time this object was collected the term was also used more loosely to refer to the Bahr el Abiad and Bahr el Jebel rivers, or the areas immediately around them, and association with the Dinka suggests this is probably the case here.
This object is very similar in style to 1936.10.11 (Ngok Dinka) and 1934.8.9, 1944.10.20-21 (Dinka) and 1979.20.75 (Dinka Tuich). Schweinfurth gives the Dinka name for this type of shield as kuerr / Kwerr (G. Schweinfurth, 1875, Artes Africanae, pl. I figs 13-15, giving the wood species as diospyrus mespiliformis; G. Schweinfurth The Heat of Africa, 1873, vol. 1, p. 156, in anglicised spelling as quayre ). Note that Petherick also illustrated the type, which he associated with the Mundu, a group located between the Dinka and the Zande (J. Petherick, 1861, "On the Arms of the Arab and Negro Tribes of Central Africa, Bordering on the White Nile", Journal of the Royal United Service Institution IV no. 13, fig. 16). The groove along the inside face of the shield is probably designed to allow a spear to slot in place, enabling both to be carried together more easily and freeing up the other hand (D. Plasche & M.A. Zirngibl, 1992, African Shields, p. 75).
In the early 1930's, Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton filmed footage of a staged fight between a Dinka and Jur, each armed with a club and heavy parrying shield (Mrs Powell Cotton, "Village Handicrafts in the Sudan", Man 34 (112), pp 90-91). A copy of this film is held in the archives of the Powell-Cotton Museum at Quex Park in Kent.
Rachael Sparks and Jeremy Coote 1/8/2005.
Collected by Evans-Pritchard sometime between December 1926 and June 1931, when he was working in Southern Sudan studying groups such as the Zande and Nuer. Throughout the twentieth century the term ‘White Nile’ has been used to denote an administrative district immediately south of Khartoum. However at the time this object was collected the term was also used more loosely to refer to the Bahr el Abiad and Bahr el Jebel rivers, or the areas immediately around them, and association with the Dinka suggests this is probably the case here.
This object is very similar in style to 1936.10.11 (Ngok Dinka) and 1934.8.9, 1944.10.20-21 (Dinka) and 1979.20.75 (Dinka Tuich). Schweinfurth gives the Dinka name for this type of shield as kuerr / Kwerr (G. Schweinfurth, 1875, Artes Africanae, pl. I figs 13-15, giving the wood species as diospyrus mespiliformis; G. Schweinfurth The Heat of Africa, 1873, vol. 1, p. 156, in anglicised spelling as quayre ). Note that Petherick also illustrated the type, which he associated with the Mundu, a group located between the Dinka and the Zande (J. Petherick, 1861, "On the Arms of the Arab and Negro Tribes of Central Africa, Bordering on the White Nile", Journal of the Royal United Service Institution IV no. 13, fig. 16). The groove along the inside face of the shield is probably designed to allow a spear to slot in place, enabling both to be carried together more easily and freeing up the other hand (D. Plasche & M.A. Zirngibl, 1992, African Shields, p. 75).
In the early 1930's, Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton filmed footage of a staged fight between a Dinka and Jur, each armed with a club and heavy parrying shield (Mrs Powell Cotton, "Village Handicrafts in the Sudan", Man 34 (112), pp 90-91). A copy of this film is held in the archives of the Powell-Cotton Museum at Quex Park in Kent.
Rachael Sparks and Jeremy Coote 1/8/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[IX, p.
16] 1931 [insert, in pencil] 66 [end insert]
E.
EVANS-PRITCHARD
, Esq.
Dec.
Specimens collected by himself in the EASTERN SUDAN, viz.
[insert, in pencil] 10 [end insert] - Parrying-shield cut from one piece of wood, with carved out grip, tapering ends & longitudinal groove along the back.
DINKA, WHITE NILE.
Additional Accession Book Entry [p. 15] 1936.66.10 No given AP l[ength] = 760 mm.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [RTS 6/4/2004].
Written on object - Parrying shield, DINKA, WHITE NILE. Pres. by E. Evans Pritchard 1931 [RTS 10/1/2005].
Additional Accession Book Entry [p. 15] 1936.66.10 No given AP l[ength] = 760 mm.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [RTS 6/4/2004].
Written on object - Parrying shield, DINKA, WHITE NILE. Pres. by E. Evans Pritchard 1931 [RTS 10/1/2005].
