Arrow, Burun?

Arrow, Burun?
Other views of this artifact:


Accession Number:
1944.10.35
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 = 1007; arrowhead L = 398, diam = 9.3; shaft L = 609, diam = 10.5 x 10, L nock = 12; binding L upper = 26, lower = 21 mm [RTS 24/5/2005].
Weight:
45.0 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 an arrowhead carved from dark brown ebony (Pantone black 7C) with pointed tip and a narrow elongated body that gradually tapers out to reach its maximum diameter about two thirds the way down its length, before narrowing again at its base. Narrow shaving marks are visible down the sides, while the upper part of the point has been covered with finely incised crosshatching. This has been fitted into the socketed top of a yellow wooden shaft (Pantone 730C), cut from a length of cane with 4 segments visible along its body and a slightly oval section. The surface has been smoothed, and bound round with narrow strips of fine animal hide over the junction of tang and shaft, and again, just above the nocked butt, which has 2 rectangular notches cut into opposite sides. This binding is a grayish brown colour (Pantone Warm Gray 10C). The arrow is nearly complete, but the point has broken off at its tip, and the shaft has split at several points along its length and is slightly damaged at the butt; there are no flights. It has a weight of 45 grams and a total length of 1007 mm. The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 398 mm and a maximum diameter of 9.3 mm, while the wooden shaft is 609 mm long, with a diameter of 10.5 by 10 mm and a nock length of 12 mm; the bindings 26 mm long around the upper part, and 21 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.

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. Wooden arrow with ebony point. Don. Mrs L. Gorringe. 1944.10.35 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 24/5/2005].

Written on object - BURUN tribe, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. d.d. Mrs L. Gorringe. 1944.10.35 [RTS 24/5/2005].



 
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