Dinka sling
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1934.8.18
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] ?Warab Fanamweir
Cultural Group:
Dinka
Date Made:
By 1933
Materials:
Grass Fibre Plant
Process:
Twisted , Knotted , Netted
Dimensions:
L = 1160 mm, diam cord = 3.5 mm, W woven band elements = 19.5 (at top), 21 mm (at base) [RTS 30/6/2004].
Weight:
86.4 g
Local Name:
atiol [athiol?]
Other Owners:
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah on 3rd May 1933 during a shooting expedition
Field Collector:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton & Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Hannah Brayton Slater)
PRM Source:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton
Acquired:
Donated 1934
Collected Date:
3rd May 1933
Description:
Sling made from strands of yellowish brown twisted grass fibre (Pantone 7508C), woven and knotted together at intervals to form a net bag which can be used to carry a large gourd.
This consists of a thick cord at the top, made from three strands of fibre twisted together, bent into a loop and secured at its base by weaving it into a thick cylindrical section of tightly knotted strands, measuring 16.5 by 15 mm across.
This section has a slight 'waist' where the centre is pinched in, and may have been made from two shorter cylindrical segments woven together at this point.
Below this, there is a circular ring where cord has been wound vertically around a solid core - either a small piece of wood or further cord.
This is 21 mm long, 20 mm wide and 8 mm high.
This whole section, from top of loop to base of ring, serves as the carrying loop or handle for the sling.
From this point, the sling divides into two parts, each of which is made up from triple twisted fibre strands continuing from the handle above.
First there is a narrow band, 85 mm long, made of six vertical cords; at 8 regular intervals, one of the three stands that make up each cord cuts across the body at an oblique angle, passing in and out of the vertical strands as it goes and thus binding them together into a tight mesh.
After this band, the six cords on either side of the object separate again for a length of 310 mm, at which point groups of two cords are plaited together for 25 mm, before separating again below.
This is the top of a wide-meshed network bag, where each cord is plaited briefly together with its neighbour, first to the right, and then to the left, forming a bag with large lozenge-shaped gaps in the side.
Finally, all cords are plaited in pairs towards the base of the sling, before being woven together in a further narrow band, using the technique described above.
This band is folded across its centre to form the base of the object.
The carrying sling is complete, and apart from some minor fraying to the plant fibres, in good condition.
It has a length of 1160 mm; of this, the carrying loop is 60 mm long, while the actual network bag part of the object is 668 mm long.
Each triple stranded cord has a diameter of 3.5 mm, while their component strands are about 1 mm in diameter.
The narrow woven band elements have a width of 19.5 (top band) and 21 mm (base band).
The sling has a weight of 86.4 grams.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Fanamweir on 3rd May 1933, during a shooting expedition.
The Dinka name for this type of object is said to be atiol. This may be the same as the term athiol, that is used by Langton for a Dinka Tuich pot hanger, and which appears in Nebel with the definition: ‘Athiol, net for carrying milk-gourds’ (Nebel 1979, Dinka-English Dictionary, p. 13).
Compare this with the two Nuer slings in the collection (1931.66.23-24), and a very similar Dinka Tuich sling from northern Bahr el Ghazal (1979.20.66).
Rachael Sparks 24/9/2005.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Fanamweir on 3rd May 1933, during a shooting expedition.
The Dinka name for this type of object is said to be atiol. This may be the same as the term athiol, that is used by Langton for a Dinka Tuich pot hanger, and which appears in Nebel with the definition: ‘Athiol, net for carrying milk-gourds’ (Nebel 1979, Dinka-English Dictionary, p. 13).
Compare this with the two Nuer slings in the collection (1931.66.23-24), and a very similar Dinka Tuich sling from northern Bahr el Ghazal (1979.20.66).
Rachael Sparks 24/9/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[p.
248] 1934 [insert] 8 [end insert] -
MAJOR P.
H.
G.
POWELL-COTTON
, Quex Park, Birchington, E.
Kent.
Specimens collected by himself & Mrs Cotton, during hunting trips, 1933, viz: - From the
DINKA
tribe, FANAMWEIR & KORNUK, WHITE NILE [...] [insert] 18 [end insert] -
Atiol
, large-meshed network sling, for carrying a calabash.
ib[idem] [FANAMWEIR] (2059).
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 6/4/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Dinka Tribe". This object appears as item 2059: "Sling, for fibre calabash; native name Atiol , 3/5/33 Fanamweir, 8.55 N, 28.42 E". Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].
Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - Atiol , sling for carrying calabash. DINKA, FANAMWEIR, WHITE NILE, 8° 55' N., 28° 42 E. d.d. Major Powell-Cotton, 1934 (2059) [rectangular metal-edged tag, tied to object; RTS 30/6/2004].
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 6/4/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Dinka Tribe". This object appears as item 2059: "Sling, for fibre calabash; native name Atiol , 3/5/33 Fanamweir, 8.55 N, 28.42 E". Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].
Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - Atiol , sling for carrying calabash. DINKA, FANAMWEIR, WHITE NILE, 8° 55' N., 28° 42 E. d.d. Major Powell-Cotton, 1934 (2059) [rectangular metal-edged tag, tied to object; RTS 30/6/2004].
