Lotuko spinning top
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1934.8.80
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Eastern Equatoria Navera
Cultural Group:
Lotuko [Otuho]
Date Made:
By 1933
Materials:
Clay , Plant Thorn
Process:
Modelled , Perforated , Pyroengraved Pokerwork?
Dimensions:
L = 36.7 mm, diam thorn = 2.3 mm; whorl L = 18.7, W = 17.5, Ht = 13 mm [RTS 21/7/2004].
Weight:
3.8 g
Other Owners:
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Hannah Brayton Slater) on 8th April 1933 during a shooting expedition [RTS 19/7/2004].
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:
8th April 1933
Description:
Small spinning top made from a light yellowish brown thorn (Pantone 7508C), roughly cut across the top end and tapering to a sharp naturally occurring point at the other end.
There are four marks running in a vertical column down the lower body that may have been pyroengraved; from the top down, these consist of two short horizontal lines, a large circle and a smaller oval.
Just below this point, a small hand-modelled clay whorl has been fitted onto this spindle.
This was probably done while the clay was still wet, as the lower exit hole is extremely small and seems to fit the shape of the thorn exactly.
The clay is a mid grey colour with tiny micaceous flecks (close to Pantone 415C), and has probably been sun baked rather than fired in a kiln as it is quite soft.
The whorl has a biconical body, with irregularly convex upper and lower surfaces, and is slightly oval in plan view.
The object is complete, although the surface of the thorn body is stringy and beginning to detach in places.
The thorn is 36.7 mm long and has a diameter of 2.3 mm; the whorl is 18.7 mm long, 17.5 mm wide and 13 mm high; the object as a whole has a weight of 3.8 grams.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Navera on 8th April 1933, during a shooting expedition. They do not give the local name for this type of object.
This object is currently on display in the Lower Gallery, case 91A.
Rachael Sparks 25/9/2005.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Navera on 8th April 1933, during a shooting expedition. They do not give the local name for this type of object.
This object is currently on display in the Lower Gallery, case 91A.
Rachael Sparks 25/9/2005.
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: [...] [p.
252] - From the
LATUKA
tribe, NAVERA, TORIT, LARONYO.
[p.
256, insert] 80 [end insert] - Small spinning-top with clay whorl.
NAVERA.
(539).
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [RTS 1/6/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Tribe Latuka". This object appears as item 539: " Two one clay top s , unbaked, 8/4/33 Navera, about 4.30 N 32.30 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 - Spinning top of unbaked clay. LATUKA, NAVERA, E. SUDAN, c. 4° 30' N., 32° 30' E. d.d. Major Powell-Cotton, 1934 (539) [written on base of glass topped box in which object is stored and displayed; RTS 19/7/2004]
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [RTS 1/6/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Tribe Latuka". This object appears as item 539: " Two one clay top s , unbaked, 8/4/33 Navera, about 4.30 N 32.30 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 - Spinning top of unbaked clay. LATUKA, NAVERA, E. SUDAN, c. 4° 30' N., 32° 30' E. d.d. Major Powell-Cotton, 1934 (539) [written on base of glass topped box in which object is stored and displayed; RTS 19/7/2004]
