Arrow, Burun?

Other views of this artifact:

Accession Number:

1944.10.34

Country:

Sudan

Region:

Blue Nile ?Darfung

Cultural Group:

?Burun

Date Made:

By 1917

Materials:

Cane Plant , Ebony Wood Plant , Animal Hide Skin

Process:

Carved , Notched , Socketed , Bound , Decorated

Dimensions:

Total L = 1086; arrowhead L = 357, diam = 9.2; shaft L = 729, diam = 10.5 x 9.3, nock L = 11; binding upper part L = 20, lower part L = 17 mm [RTS 23/5/2005].

Weight:

41.4 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 an arrowhead carved from dark brown ebony (Pantone black 4C), with pointed tip and a narrow elongated body that gradually tapers out to reach its maximum diameter two thirds the way down its length, before narrowing again at its base. This has shaving marks visible along the surface, and has been decorated with 2 sets of 3 oblique notches, cut on either side of the body just below the point. At its base, the arrowhead has been fitted into the socketed top of a yellow wooden shaft (Pantone 729C), cut from a length of cane with 6 segments visible along its body and with a slightly oval section. This has a smooth surface, and has been bound round with narrow strips of a fine animal hide over the junction of tang and shaft, and again just above the nocked butt, which has 2 rectangular notches cut into opposite sides. This binding has a slightly reddish tinge (Pantone 4705C). The arrow is complete and intact, but is without flights. It has a weight of 41.4 grams and a total length of 1086 mm. The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 357 mm and a maximum diameter of 9.2 mm, while the wooden shaft is 729 mm long, with a diameter of 10.5 by 9.3 mm and a nock length of 11 mm; the binding around the upper part is 20 mm long, and 17 mm long around the lower end.

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].

Pitt Rivers Museum label - AFRICA, Sudan. Probably BURUN tribe of Darfung. Cane arrow with wooden point. Don. Mrs L. Gorring, 1944.10.34 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 24/5/2005].

Written on object - BURUN tribe, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. d.d. Mrs L. Gorringe. 1944.10.34 [RTS 24/5/2005].