Arrow, Burun?

Other views of this artifact:

Accession Number:

1944.10.44

Country:

Sudan

Region:

Blue Nile ?Darfung

Cultural Group:

?Burun

Date Made:

By 1912

Materials:

Cane Plant , Ebony Wood Plant , Animal Hide Skin

Process:

Carved , Notched , Socketed , Bound , Decorated

Dimensions:

Total L = 1044; arrowhead L = 232, diam = 9; shaft L = 812, diam = 10 x 9.2, nock L = 13, binding L upper = 7, lower = 30 mm [RTS 25/5/2005].

Weight:

40.9 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 ebony arrowhead (Pantone black 4C) with a narrow body that tapers out slightly along its length then in again at its base. The tip of the point is missing; shortly below, the upper body has been decorated with a row of 3 obliquely cut notches down either side, with clear shaving marks down the rest of the surface. This has been fitted at its base into the socketed top of a yellow cane shaft with 4 segments along its length and a slightly oval section (Pantone 730C). The surface of the shaft is smooth, and it has been bound round with narrow strips of a grayish brown animal hide to prevent the wood splitting on impact (Pantone Warm Gray 10C), with some red coloration that may result from an added fixative (Pantone 4695C). This binding has been added to the junction of arrowhead tang and shaft, and again at the lower end, just above the nocked butt, which has 2 rectangular notches cut into opposite sides. The arrow is complete, apart from its tip. It has a weight of 40.9 grams and a total length of 1044 mm. The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 232 mm and a diameter of 9 mm, while the wooden shaft is 812 mm long, with a diameter of 10 by 9.2 mm and a nock length of 13 mm; the binding is 7 mm long around the upper part, and 30 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 ebony point. Don. Mrs L. Gorringe. 1944.10.44 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 25/5/2005].

Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.44 [RTS 24/5/2005].