Dinka arm ornament
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1934.8.26
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] ?Warab Fanamweir
Cultural Group:
Dinka
Date Made:
By 1933
Materials:
Animal Ivory Tooth , Brass Metal , Copper Alloy Metal
Process:
Carved , Perforated , Bound
Dimensions:
L across outer edges = 104.5 mm, W across outer edges = 90.3 mm, Ht = 21.3 mm, Th = 6 to 8.7 mm; inside L x W = 87 by 78 mm [RTS 2/6/2004].
Weight:
71.2 g
Local Name:
pioque
Other Owners:
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife on 3rd May 1933 during a shooting expedition
Field Collector:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton & Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Brayton)
PRM Source:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton
Acquired:
Donated 1934
Collected Date:
3rd May 1933
Description:
Arm ornament made from two pieces of ivory.
This was probably carved originally as a single piece, and then either deliberately or accidentally broken.
It has a flat inner face that is currently covered with a layer of white uncalcified dentine, from the core of the tusk.
This surface seems irregular, and the thickness of the armlet varies.
The upper and lower surfaces are flat and narrow; the outer face was probably cut to be slightly convex, and then further worked by the addition of two shallow parallel grooves around the circumference.
The two parts of the armlet are of equal size, and the joining ends have been cut flat.
Each end has been pierced by two holes, seated in the bases of the decorative grooves.
Through these have been threaded pieces of round sectioned brass wire (Pantone 871C).
These are visible on the outer face as two groups of horizontal bindings going across each pair of holes.
On the inside face, the wires have also been passed vertically and obliquely between the holes.
In addition to these functional holes, small circular depressions have been bored into the narrow flat upper and lower surfaces at each end; on one end, there are two such depressions bored so that they touch very slightly.
The object is complete, with the ivory currently a pale cream colour (Pantone 7401C).
It measures 104.5 by 90.3 mm across its outside edges, and 87 by 78 mm across its inside edges, with a height of 21.3 mm and a thickness that varies from 6 to 8.7 mm.
The weight is 71.2 grams.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Fanamweir on 3rd May 1933, during a shooting expedition.
The Dinka call this type of object pioque, a word that does not appear in Nebel’s Dinka dictionary. Nebel does however give the terms atum (ivory, round) (Nebel 1979, Dinka-English Dictionary, p. 106), and apiok, meaning an ivory armlet. This is probably the same as Domville Fife’s afjok, which he suggested was an ivory bangle, worn by a Dinka man who had speared an elephant (C.W. Domville Fife, 1927, Savage Life in the Black Sudan, p. 129).
This object is currently on display in the Upper Gallery, case 26A.
Rachael Sparks 24/9/2005.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Fanamweir on 3rd May 1933, during a shooting expedition.
The Dinka call this type of object pioque, a word that does not appear in Nebel’s Dinka dictionary. Nebel does however give the terms atum (ivory, round) (Nebel 1979, Dinka-English Dictionary, p. 106), and apiok, meaning an ivory armlet. This is probably the same as Domville Fife’s afjok, which he suggested was an ivory bangle, worn by a Dinka man who had speared an elephant (C.W. Domville Fife, 1927, Savage Life in the Black Sudan, p. 129).
This object is currently on display in the Upper Gallery, case 26A.
Rachael Sparks 24/9/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[p.
248] 1934 [insert] 8 [end insert] -
MAJOR P.
H.
G.
POWELL-COTTON
, Quex Park, Birchington, E.
Kent.
Specimens collected by himself & Mrs Cotton, during hunting trips, 1933, viz: - From the
DINKA
tribe, FANAMWEIR & KORNUK, WHITE NILE [...] [p.
250] [insert] 26 [end insert] -
Pioque
, ivory armlet, in two pieces wired together, ib[idem] [FANAMWEIR] (2049).
Additional Accession Book Entry [p. 249] - 1934.8.26 No given AP [red biro] A20 F10 23.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 9/3/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Dinka Tribe". This object appears as item 2049: "Ivory armlet, 2 pieces wired together, 2 grooves, native name pioque , 3/5/33 Fanamweir, 8.55 N, 28.42 E". Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].
Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - Pioque , armlet, DINKA, FANAMWEIR, WHITE NILE, 8° 55' N, 28° 42 E. d.d. Major Powell Cotton, 1934 (front), 1934.8.26 (back).
Additional Accession Book Entry [p. 249] - 1934.8.26 No given AP [red biro] A20 F10 23.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 9/3/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Dinka Tribe". This object appears as item 2049: "Ivory armlet, 2 pieces wired together, 2 grooves, native name pioque , 3/5/33 Fanamweir, 8.55 N, 28.42 E". Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].
Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - Pioque , armlet, DINKA, FANAMWEIR, WHITE NILE, 8° 55' N, 28° 42 E. d.d. Major Powell Cotton, 1934 (front), 1934.8.26 (back).
