Arrow, Burun?
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1944.10.50
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 , Incised
Dimensions:
Total L = 1012; arrowhead visible L = 622, diam = 9; shaft L = 390, diam = 9.2 x 8.7, nock L = 12, upper binding L = 34, lower binding L = 25 mm [RTS 5/7/2005].
Weight:
43.1 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 wooden point (Pantone Black 4C), with a narrow, extremely long body that tapers out slightly along its length before narrowing again at its base.
The upper third of this has been covered with shallow incised crosshatching, over which 8 groups of deeper incised lines have been cut in pairs running down the length, which each pair at right angles to those above and below it.
There are clear shaving marks down the rest of the body, the base of which has been fitted into the socketed top of a yellowish brown cane shaft with a slightly oval sectioned body made up of 4 segments along its length (Pantone 729C).
The junction of arrowhead and shaft is obscured by a narrow strip of hide, tightly wound around the body to bind these two elements together and coloured reddish brown with a probable fixative (Pantone 4705C).
There is a second, similar strip wound around the body just above the base of the shaft, which ends in a nocked butt consisting of 2 deep rectangular slots cut into opposite sides.
The object is complete and intact; there is a stain of some unidentified glossy material near the base of the arrowhead.
This particular arrow has unusual proportions, with the head being much longer than the shaft.
It has a weight of 43.1 grams and a total length of 1012 mm; the arrowhead has a length of 622 mm and a diameter of 9 mm, while the wooden shaft is 390 mm long, with a diameter of 9.2 by 8.7 mm, a nock length of 12 mm, upper binding length of 34 mm and lower binding length of 25 mm.
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. 1944.10.50 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 5/7/2005].
Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.50 [RTS 5/7/2005].
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. 1944.10.50 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 5/7/2005].
Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.50 [RTS 5/7/2005].
