Dinka club
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1934.8.5
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] ?Warab Kornuk
Cultural Group:
Dinka
Date Made:
By 1933
Materials:
Wood Plant
Process:
Carved , Stained , Polished
Dimensions:
L = 904, maximum diam = 36 x 34; diam above base = 28.3 x 27.3 mm [RTS 10/5/2005].
Weight:
502.4 g
Local Name:
ritt
Other Owners:
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife on 25th May 1933 during a shooting expedition
Field Collector:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton & Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Brayton)
PRM Source:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton
Acquired:
Donated 1934
Collected Date:
25th May 1933
Description:
Club carved from a single piece of wood, consisting of a pointed head tapering out to a narrow oval sectioned body that reaches its maximum diameter one third the way down its length, before tapering in towards the lower end, where the body swells out slightly before tapering in again to a narrow, flat butt.
The object is complete, with a few small cuts at the head; it appears to have been stained a mid to dark brown colour (Pantone black 4C) and then polished.
It has a weight of 502.4 grams and is 904 mm long, with a maximum diameter of 36 by 34 mm around the upper body, and 28.3 by 27.3 mm just above the lower end.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Kornuk on 25th May 1933, during a shooting expedition.
The Dinka name for this type of object is said to be ritt. Nebel defines the term rit as ‘ebony’ (A. Nebel 1979, Dinka-English Dictionary, p. 78), but lists various terms for club: '(carved), atuel; nueer; (with points), matar with pointed branches, mayuany; (thick stick) thiec' (op. cit., p. 119). While it seems likely that Powell-Cotton’s informants provided him with the name of the material of one of the clubs he asked about, rather than a generic Dinka word for ‘club’, it is not certain that the particular example now owned by the Pitt Rivers Museum is made of ebony.
Rachael Sparks 24/9/2005.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Kornuk on 25th May 1933, during a shooting expedition.
The Dinka name for this type of object is said to be ritt. Nebel defines the term rit as ‘ebony’ (A. Nebel 1979, Dinka-English Dictionary, p. 78), but lists various terms for club: '(carved), atuel; nueer; (with points), matar with pointed branches, mayuany; (thick stick) thiec' (op. cit., p. 119). While it seems likely that Powell-Cotton’s informants provided him with the name of the material of one of the clubs he asked about, rather than a generic Dinka word for ‘club’, it is not certain that the particular example now owned by the Pitt Rivers Museum is made of ebony.
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] 5 [end insert] - Plain wooden club,
ritt
, Kornuk (2670).
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes or clubs catalogue cards [RTS 3/3/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Dinka Tribe". This object appears as item 2670: "Stick, native name Ritt , 25/5/33 Kornuk, 7.53 N 28.9 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].
Pitt Rivers Museum label - AFRICA, Sudan, Kornuk. Dinka tribe. Wooden club, local name ritt , collected by Major P.H.G. Powell-Cotton 25th May 1933; no. 2670. 1934.8.5 [plastic coated label, tied to object; RTS 10/5/2005].
Written on object - Club, ritt , DINKA. KORNUK, WHITE NILE. 7° 53' N., 28° 0' E. d.d. Major Powell-Cotton, 1034 (2670) [RTS 6/4/2005].
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes or clubs catalogue cards [RTS 3/3/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Dinka Tribe". This object appears as item 2670: "Stick, native name Ritt , 25/5/33 Kornuk, 7.53 N 28.9 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].
Pitt Rivers Museum label - AFRICA, Sudan, Kornuk. Dinka tribe. Wooden club, local name ritt , collected by Major P.H.G. Powell-Cotton 25th May 1933; no. 2670. 1934.8.5 [plastic coated label, tied to object; RTS 10/5/2005].
Written on object - Club, ritt , DINKA. KORNUK, WHITE NILE. 7° 53' N., 28° 0' E. d.d. Major Powell-Cotton, 1034 (2670) [RTS 6/4/2005].
