Arrow, Burun?
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1944.10.45
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 = 1080; arrowhead L = 246, diam = 9.5; shaft L = 834, diam = 9.7 x 9.5, nock L = 11, binding L = 20 mm [RTS 25/5/2005].
Weight:
36.8 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 before narrowing 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.
The base of the tang has been fitted into the socketed top of a yellow cane shaft with 6 segments along its length and a slightly oval section (Pantone 7510C).
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 11C), in this case, unsuccessfully, as the shaft has indeed split at this point and the binding is loose.
There is usually a second bound area just above the butt end on arrows of this type, but in this instance the binding has been lost, and again, the shaft has split with some of the surface layer lost.
The butt has been nocked, with 2 rectangular notches cut into opposite sides.
Excepting the arrowhead tip and missing binding, the object is complete.
It has a weight of 36.8 grams and a total length of 1080 mm.
The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 246 mm and a diameter of 9.5 mm, while the wooden shaft is 834 mm long, with a diameter of 9.7 by 9.5 mm and a nock length of 11 mm; the binding is 20 mm long.
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.
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. 1944.10.45 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 25/5/2005].
Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.45 [RTS 24/5/2005].
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. 1944.10.45 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 25/5/2005].
Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.45 [RTS 24/5/2005].
