Arrow, Burun?
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1944.10.66
Country:
Sudan
Region:
Blue Nile ?Darfung
Cultural Group:
?Burun
Date Made:
By 1912
Materials:
Cane Plant , Ebony Wood Plant , Animal Hide Skin , Pigment
Process:
Carved , Notched , Socketed , Bound , Decorated , Incised
Dimensions:
Total L = 1038; arrowhead L = 298, diam = 8.5; shaft L = 740, diam = 9.8 x 9.4, nock L = 15, upper binding L = 22, lower binding L = 13 mm [RTS 26/5/2005].
Weight:
40.1 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), with a narrow body that tapers out slightly along its length before narrowing again at its base.
The upper body has been decorated with 4 pairs of deep notches, running in 2 rows down the sides, and arranged so that each pair is at right angles to the pair above it.
The section between the lower 2 pairs has also been covered with incised crosshatching.
Shaving marks are visible down the rest of the body, which has been fitted at its base into the socketed top of a cane shaft with a body made up of 5 segments along its length, very slightly oval in section.
This is yellow in colour (Pantone 729C), but has traces of a reddish brown pigment over the surface (Pantone 4695C).
This has been bound around the junction of tang and shaft with a narrow strip of animal hide, designed to prevent the wood splitting on impact, and a pale yellow colour (Pantone 7506C).
There is a second section of binding just above the butt, which is nocked, with 2 rectangular notches cut into either side.
The lower shaft has also been decorated, possibly with an owner's mark, consisting of 3 rows of a tight zigzag pattern.
The arrow appears to be complete and intact.
It has a weight of 40.1 grams and a total length of 1038 mm.
The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 298 mm and a diameter of 8.5 mm, while the wooden shaft is 740 mm long, with a diameter of 9.8 by 9.4 mm and a nock length of 15 mm; the binding is 22 mm long around the upper part, and 13 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. 1944.10.66 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 26/5/2005].
Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.66 [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. 1944.10.66 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 26/5/2005].
Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.66 [RTS 24/5/2005].
