Nuer club
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1937.34.45
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan]
Cultural Group:
Nuer
Date Made:
By 1936
Materials:
Wood Plant , Iron Metal , Stone
Process:
Ground , Perforated , Forged (Metal) , Hammered , Bent , Socketed Carved Polished Recycled
Dimensions:
L = 524, diam head 74.5, Ht head = 50; iron disc diam = 43.8, th = 2; handle W = 21.3, th = 20.5; iron butt W = 17, th = 16.2 mm [RTS 9/12/2004].
Weight:
642.8 g
Other Owners:
Collected by Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard during his last period of fieldwork amongst the Nuer between October and November 1936, where he worked amongst the Nuer Leek in the area west of the Nile [RTS 6/7/2004].
Field Collector:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
PRM Source:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Acquired:
Donated 1937
Collected Date:
October to November 1936
Description:
Ball-headed club, consisting of a stone head fitted onto a wooden shaft with iron butt.
The head is in the shape of a flattened sphere, with a squat body and convex sides, pierced through its centre with a large hourglass-shaped hole.
This has been ground smooth on its outer face.
The material is a hard stone, with a mid gray matrix (Pantone 7539C) containing numerous large angular inclusions of a white and green minerals.
This is said to have been imported from the Nuba Mountains, and may have been originally used in a different way - perhaps as a digging stick weight.
Here, it has been fitted onto the end of the shaft.
At its top end, the stone head is held in place by an iron rod, wound several times around the top of the shaft to thicken its circumference, and a series of 6 iron flat headed nails, hammered into the handle top then bent down over the edge.
These project out further than the iron binding.
A flat iron disc has been fitted directly below the head; this may have been recycled from another object and serves to keep the head from slipping further down the handle shaft.
The handle itself has been carved from a short length of yellow wood (Pantone 7509C), cut flat at its top end, and tapering slightly to the base.
The outer surface has been polished.
A spiked butt has been fitted over the base of the shaft, made from a sheet of iron bent around the wood, to leave a seam down one side that is partially open at the top, with the butt tapering to a sharp point at the other end.
The object is complete and intact, and has a weight of 642.8 grams.
It is 524 mm long; the head has a diameter of 74.5 mm and is 50 mm high; the iron neck disc has a diameter of 43.8 mm and is 2 mm thick; the shaft has a maximum width of 21.3 mm and thickness of 20.5 mm, while the butt measures 17 by 16.2 mm across its top socket.
Collected by Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard during his last period of fieldwork amongst the Nuer between October and November 1936, where he worked amongst the Nuer Leek in the area west of the Nile (pers. comm. Chris Morton 2004).
According to the original records for this item, the stone used in the head came from the Nuba Mountains. It may have originally been used as a digging stick weight (J. Coote, pers. comm. 25/11/2004).
Evans-Pritchard states that "Men of the same village or camp fight with clubs, for it is a convention that spears must not be used between close neighbours lest one of them be killed and the community be split by a blood-feud" ( The Nuer, p. 151). However, this does not seem to be the usual type of Nuer club - which is more like a stick with a thickened end (see The Nuer frontispiece and pl. VIII), and it may have been used in more serious warfare. The spiked end could have been used as a weapon, as well as to stick the club end in the ground. Stone-headed clubs are said to be found amongst the Jur Luo, and a Shilluk example has been reported, using stone from the Lyri Hills (A.A. Blackman, 1956, The Material Culture of the Nilotic Tribes of East Africa, B.Litt. Thesis, p. 130; W. Hofmayr, 1925, "Die Schilluk, Geschichte, Religion und Leben eines Niloten-Stammes", Anthropos II no. 5, 340).
Cited in A.A. Blackman, 1956, The Material Culture of the Nilotic Tribes of East Africa, B.Litt. Thesis, p. 130.
Currently on display in the Upper Gallery, case 26A.
Rachael Sparks 18/9/2005.
Collected by Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard during his last period of fieldwork amongst the Nuer between October and November 1936, where he worked amongst the Nuer Leek in the area west of the Nile (pers. comm. Chris Morton 2004).
According to the original records for this item, the stone used in the head came from the Nuba Mountains. It may have originally been used as a digging stick weight (J. Coote, pers. comm. 25/11/2004).
Evans-Pritchard states that "Men of the same village or camp fight with clubs, for it is a convention that spears must not be used between close neighbours lest one of them be killed and the community be split by a blood-feud" ( The Nuer, p. 151). However, this does not seem to be the usual type of Nuer club - which is more like a stick with a thickened end (see The Nuer frontispiece and pl. VIII), and it may have been used in more serious warfare. The spiked end could have been used as a weapon, as well as to stick the club end in the ground. Stone-headed clubs are said to be found amongst the Jur Luo, and a Shilluk example has been reported, using stone from the Lyri Hills (A.A. Blackman, 1956, The Material Culture of the Nilotic Tribes of East Africa, B.Litt. Thesis, p. 130; W. Hofmayr, 1925, "Die Schilluk, Geschichte, Religion und Leben eines Niloten-Stammes", Anthropos II no. 5, 340).
Cited in A.A. Blackman, 1956, The Material Culture of the Nilotic Tribes of East Africa, B.Litt. Thesis, p. 130.
Currently on display in the Upper Gallery, case 26A.
Rachael Sparks 18/9/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[p.
38, pencil in left column] 34 [ink]
E.E.
EVANS-PRITCHARD
, M.A., Exeter College.
Specimens collected by himself in the EASTERN SUDAN, vis: [addition in different pen] (Coll.
in 1936) [p.
42] - From the NUER tribe, A[NGLO]-E[GYPTIAN].
SUDAN, viz: [pencil] 45 [ink] - Club with perforated stone-ball head & spiked butt.
Additional Accession Book Entry [p. 41] - 1937.34.45 No given AP l = 530 mm.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [RTS 23/7/2004].
Written on object - Stone-headed club. NUER, E. SUDAN (stone from NUBA M TS ). d.d. E. Evans-Pritchard 1937 [RTS 9/12/2004].
Additional Accession Book Entry [p. 41] - 1937.34.45 No given AP l = 530 mm.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [RTS 23/7/2004].
Written on object - Stone-headed club. NUER, E. SUDAN (stone from NUBA M TS ). d.d. E. Evans-Pritchard 1937 [RTS 9/12/2004].
Display History:
Current display label - SUDAN; NUER.
Stone-headed club with metal point at butt.
Collected and donated by E.E.
Evans-Pritchard.
1937.34.45 [in case U.26.A; RTS 13/12/2004].
Publication History:
A.A.
Blackman, 1956, The Material Culture of the Nilotic Tribes of East Africa, B.Litt.
Thesis, p.
130 [cited].
