Arrow, Burun?

Other views of this artifact:

Accession Number:

1944.10.48

Country:

Sudan

Region:

Blue Nile Darfung

Cultural Group:

?Burun

Date Made:

By 1912

Materials:

Cane Plant , Cane Plant , ?Ebony Wood Plant , Animal Hide Skin

Process:

Carved , Notched , Bound , Incised

Dimensions:

Total L = 1065, L shaft to binding = 752, diam shaft = 9.3, diam arrowhead = 9 mm [RTS 7/10/2004].

Weight:

36.3 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 wooden point (Pantone 440C), that tapers out from the tip to a long, narrow, round sectioned body tapering in again slightly just before its junction with the shaft. The upper third of the arrowhead has been carved with a series of incised zigzags running up the length all around the body, spaced tightly together to form a roughened surface. This has a slight glossy sheen; it is not clear if it has ever been poisoned. The rest of the arrowhead is smooth, with narrow shaving marks visible down its length. The wood is hard and dense and may be ebony, but this needs to be confirmed. It has been hafted onto a long shaft, made from a length of jointed yellow cane with 5 segments (Pantone 7510C). The exact method of hafting is not clear, as the junction of arrowhead and shaft is obscured by a narrow strip of brown hide (Pantone 4695C), tightly wound around the body to bind these two elements together, with the end tucked under itself to hold it in place. There is a second, lighter brown strip wound around the body just above the base of the shaft and similarly secured (Pantone 465C). The butt end of the arrow has been nocked, with a deep rectangular slot cut through opposite sides. The object is complete and intact. It has a weight of 36.3 grams, and a total length of 1065 mm; the shaft is 752 mm long from its end to the binding at the base of the point, with a diameter of 9.3 mm. The arrowhead has a maximum diameter of 9 mm.

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].

Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN [RTS 6/10/2004].