Bongo leather quiver
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1884.17.1
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan]
Cultural Group:
Bongo
Date Made:
?Before 1858
Materials:
Animal Leather Skin , Plant Fibre , Ochre
Process:
Stitched , Dyed , Twisted
Dimensions:
L = 673, rim diam = 51 x 43.5, foot diam = 61.5 x 60, foot th = 9.3, rim th = 3 mm [RTS 25/7/2005].
Weight:
205.6 g
Local Name:
?mudde kirré
Other Owners:
Collected by Petherick between 1856 and 1858, and shipped back to England in 1859. Subsequently acquired by Pitt Rivers, perhaps via auction, as Petherick is known to have auctioned some of his collection through Mr Bullock of High Holborn, London, on 27t
Field Collector:
John Petherick
PRM Source:
Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection
Acquired:
Donated 1884
Collected Date:
1856 - 1858
Description:
Quiver made from a rectangular strip of leather, bent into a hollow cylinder with the ends brought together to form a raised seam that runs down one side; this has been stitched together using a length of twisted fibre 2-ply cord.
The top part of this strip has been folded over itself to form a reinforced rim of double thickness, some 143 mm in length.
There is a further reinforced section 50 mm below this, made from 2 narrow strips of leather, sewn onto either side of the seam ridge.
The function of this is unknown, but it may have originally been designed to provide a base for some kind of quiver strap.
At its base, the cylinder splays out slightly, and has been sewn onto a series of 10 stacked leather discs, which form a solid disc foot that projects out from the quiver sides.
A ring of cord stitching is visible around the upper face of this foot, and again on the underside, in a ring inset from the edge.
The surface has been dyed with red ochre throughout .
It is complete, but has some surface cracking and wear; there is a small tear at the mouth, and a series of 4 cuts in the lower walls.
The quiver has a weight of 205.6 grams and is 673 mm long, with a top diameter of 51 by 43.5 mm, foot diameter of 61.5 by 60 mm, foot thickness of 9.3 and rim thickness of 3 mm.
This object was collected by John Petherick in the period between 1856 and 1858, when he led three separate trading expeditions that passed through Bongo territory; it was shipped back to England in 1859. It was subsequently acquired by Pitt Rivers, perhaps via auction, as Petherick is known to have auctioned some of his collection through Mr Bullock of High Holborn, London, on 27th June 1862 (see the Catalogue of the very interesting collection of arms and implements of war, husbandry, and the chase, and articles of costume and domestic use, procured during several expeditions up the White Nile, Bahr-il-Gazal, and among the various tribes of the country, to the cannibal Neam Nam territory on the Equator, by John Petherick, Esq., H.M. Consul, Khartoum, Soudan ). Pitt Rivers sent this object to Bethnal Green Museum for display, as part of the first batch of objects sent there, probably in 1874; it was also sent to the South Kensington Museum, and transferred from there in 1884 when it became part of the original founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum.
Petherick gives the Bongo term for a 'pouch for arrows' as mudde kirré (Petherick 1861, Egypt, The Sudan and Central Africa , p. 482). It is not known if this term refers to this object specifically, or indeed if it is Bongo vocabulary, rather than that of one of his non-Bongo informants. Petherick illustrates a slightly different style of Bongo quiver in some of his publications (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 , vol iv, no 13, fig. 13; J. & K. Petherick, 1869, Travels in Central Africa and Explorations of the Western Nile Tributaries, p. 227; the same image appears on p. 12 of his unpublished sketchbook, now in the Wellcome Library, MS 5789 ). J.G. Wood published this example, and another type collected by Petherick from one of the Bongo 'sub-tribes' (J.G. Wood, 1868, The Natural History of Man Volume I, p. 494 no. 9, and p. 495 with illustration on p. 496). He described this particular example as "a very good specimen of native work, being made of leather neatly formed, while wet, upon a mould, and evidently being the handiwork of an experienced artist" (op. cit., p. 494).
Petherick describes Bongo arrows as follows: 'The points of their arrows, made of iron, are also numerously barbed' (Petherick 1861, p. 400), and '... the favourite weapon of the Dor [= Bongo] is the bow and arrow ... The workmanship of the arrows will bear inspection, when it will be found that the heads of scarcely two are alike, and the generality of them so numerously barbed that extraction cannot take place without making a considerable incision to free it from the muscle or flesh in which it may be imbedded. Occasionally some of these arrows are poisoned; this, however, with the Dor is but rarely the case, as they are also used in the chase. ... The tactics of the Dor when giving battle are to run up to within fifty or sixty yards of the enemy and discharge a quantity of arrows at him and, if not successful, to undertake as rapid a retreat: when followed, and approached, they receive a similar flight of arrows, which, after endeavouring to evade by a series of gymnastics, as soon as they are spent, they repeat the charge, and so on, until on one side or the other so many arrows have taken effect as to impede the rapid movements of a certain number of the party, which is taken advantage of by a hot pursuit: then, when encumbered by the arrows, the men that have been so hit, unable to extract them and accompany their unscathed companions, drop behind, and thus become the objects at whom to throw barbed lances... (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 , vol iv, no 13, p. 174 ff�).
Rachael Sparks 4/8/2005.
This object was collected by John Petherick in the period between 1856 and 1858, when he led three separate trading expeditions that passed through Bongo territory; it was shipped back to England in 1859. It was subsequently acquired by Pitt Rivers, perhaps via auction, as Petherick is known to have auctioned some of his collection through Mr Bullock of High Holborn, London, on 27th June 1862 (see the Catalogue of the very interesting collection of arms and implements of war, husbandry, and the chase, and articles of costume and domestic use, procured during several expeditions up the White Nile, Bahr-il-Gazal, and among the various tribes of the country, to the cannibal Neam Nam territory on the Equator, by John Petherick, Esq., H.M. Consul, Khartoum, Soudan ). Pitt Rivers sent this object to Bethnal Green Museum for display, as part of the first batch of objects sent there, probably in 1874; it was also sent to the South Kensington Museum, and transferred from there in 1884 when it became part of the original founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum.
Petherick gives the Bongo term for a 'pouch for arrows' as mudde kirré (Petherick 1861, Egypt, The Sudan and Central Africa , p. 482). It is not known if this term refers to this object specifically, or indeed if it is Bongo vocabulary, rather than that of one of his non-Bongo informants. Petherick illustrates a slightly different style of Bongo quiver in some of his publications (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 , vol iv, no 13, fig. 13; J. & K. Petherick, 1869, Travels in Central Africa and Explorations of the Western Nile Tributaries, p. 227; the same image appears on p. 12 of his unpublished sketchbook, now in the Wellcome Library, MS 5789 ). J.G. Wood published this example, and another type collected by Petherick from one of the Bongo 'sub-tribes' (J.G. Wood, 1868, The Natural History of Man Volume I, p. 494 no. 9, and p. 495 with illustration on p. 496). He described this particular example as "a very good specimen of native work, being made of leather neatly formed, while wet, upon a mould, and evidently being the handiwork of an experienced artist" (op. cit., p. 494).
Petherick describes Bongo arrows as follows: 'The points of their arrows, made of iron, are also numerously barbed' (Petherick 1861, p. 400), and '... the favourite weapon of the Dor [= Bongo] is the bow and arrow ... The workmanship of the arrows will bear inspection, when it will be found that the heads of scarcely two are alike, and the generality of them so numerously barbed that extraction cannot take place without making a considerable incision to free it from the muscle or flesh in which it may be imbedded. Occasionally some of these arrows are poisoned; this, however, with the Dor is but rarely the case, as they are also used in the chase. ... The tactics of the Dor when giving battle are to run up to within fifty or sixty yards of the enemy and discharge a quantity of arrows at him and, if not successful, to undertake as rapid a retreat: when followed, and approached, they receive a similar flight of arrows, which, after endeavouring to evade by a series of gymnastics, as soon as they are spent, they repeat the charge, and so on, until on one side or the other so many arrows have taken effect as to impede the rapid movements of a certain number of the party, which is taken advantage of by a hot pursuit: then, when encumbered by the arrows, the men that have been so hit, unable to extract them and accompany their unscathed companions, drop behind, and thus become the objects at whom to throw barbed lances... (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 , vol iv, no 13, p. 174 ff�).
Rachael Sparks 4/8/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book IV entry
[p.
35] - [insert] 1884.17 [end insert]
(WEAPONS) QUIVERS
[insert above left column] 3-figure Nos refer to P.R.
(A.L.F.) cat.
of weapons [end insert] [insert] 1 [end insert] 320
-
Long tubular leather quiver with round leather foot.
DOR, C.
AFRICA Petherick coll.
[350].
Collectors Miscellaneous XI Accession Book entry [p. 193] - PETHERICK, Consul [p. 197] [insert] 1884.17.1 [end insert] P.R. 320. Long tubular leather quiver with round foot of leather. DOR. C[ENTRAL] AFRICA. (No. 350). [p. 197] [insert] BONGO is tribe's name for itself. They are called DOR by neighbours [end insert, by BB].
Black book entry [p. 12] - 245. Quiver leather. DOR tribe, Africa (320). [insert] 1884.17.1 [end insert].
Delivery Catalogue I entry [p. 176] - Cross Bows European African and Oriental [p. 177] [insert] 1884.17.1 [end insert] Leather quiver. Dor tribe. 320 Screen 11, 234 & 235.
Pitt Rivers Catalogue Entry (1874) [p. 60] - SCREEN 11 [p. 61] QUIVERS FOR ARROWS. 320. Leather QUIVER. Dor Tribe, Central Africa.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 7/4/2004].
Pitt Rivers Museum label - Quiver or [...] Dor tribe [...] broght [...] Africa [...] [rectangular card label, perforated twice down side, handwritten in ink, and with one half broken away and missing. In Pitt Rivers' hand, may predate founding of PRM. Stored in RDF]; 245 [rectangular paper label, stuck to object, = black book reference]; 320 [rectangular card label, stored in RDF = PR cat. entry]; XIV, Dor, Central Africa. Consul Petherick HB 320 PR [rectangular label, stored in RDF]; 320 LEATHER QUIVER. DOR TRIBE. CENTRAL AFRICA [narrow white tag, stored in RDF];
Written on object - DOR TRIBE, CENT. AFRICA d.d. CONSUL PETHERICK. P.R. 320 [white ink].
Collectors Miscellaneous XI Accession Book entry [p. 193] - PETHERICK, Consul [p. 197] [insert] 1884.17.1 [end insert] P.R. 320. Long tubular leather quiver with round foot of leather. DOR. C[ENTRAL] AFRICA. (No. 350). [p. 197] [insert] BONGO is tribe's name for itself. They are called DOR by neighbours [end insert, by BB].
Black book entry [p. 12] - 245. Quiver leather. DOR tribe, Africa (320). [insert] 1884.17.1 [end insert].
Delivery Catalogue I entry [p. 176] - Cross Bows European African and Oriental [p. 177] [insert] 1884.17.1 [end insert] Leather quiver. Dor tribe. 320 Screen 11, 234 & 235.
Pitt Rivers Catalogue Entry (1874) [p. 60] - SCREEN 11 [p. 61] QUIVERS FOR ARROWS. 320. Leather QUIVER. Dor Tribe, Central Africa.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 7/4/2004].
Pitt Rivers Museum label - Quiver or [...] Dor tribe [...] broght [...] Africa [...] [rectangular card label, perforated twice down side, handwritten in ink, and with one half broken away and missing. In Pitt Rivers' hand, may predate founding of PRM. Stored in RDF]; 245 [rectangular paper label, stuck to object, = black book reference]; 320 [rectangular card label, stored in RDF = PR cat. entry]; XIV, Dor, Central Africa. Consul Petherick HB 320 PR [rectangular label, stored in RDF]; 320 LEATHER QUIVER. DOR TRIBE. CENTRAL AFRICA [narrow white tag, stored in RDF];
Written on object - DOR TRIBE, CENT. AFRICA d.d. CONSUL PETHERICK. P.R. 320 [white ink].
Display History:
Displayed in Bethnal Green and South Kensington Museums (V&A).
[AP]
Publication History:
Illustrated in J.G.
Wood, 1868, The Natural History of Man Vol.
I, p.
494 no.
9, which he describes as "a very good specimen of native work, being made of leather neatly formed, while wet, upon a mould, and evidently being the handiwork of an experienced artist" [RTS 27/1/2004].
