Arrow, Burun?
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1944.10.52
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 , Incised , Decorated
Dimensions:
Total L = 1063; arrowhead L = 205, diam = 9; shaft L = 858, diam = 9.3 x 8.5, nock L = 10, binding L = 17 mm [RTS 5/7/2005].
Weight:
34.6 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, elongated body that tapers out slightly along its length before narrowing again at its base.
The upper body below the tip has been decorated with a column of 4 obliquely cut notches down either side, arranged as pairs; the body is slightly waisted below the last pair, as if a further pair was intended, but not completed and then polished smooth.
The rest of the body has also been smoothed, but there are faint shaving marks down the lower part.
At its base, the tang has been fitted into the hollowed out top of an orangey yellow oval sectioned cane shaft (Pantone 729C), with 6 segments along its body.
The top of the shaft has been shaved down, and the surface is a paler yellow where it would have been originally covered by binding strips; these are now missing.
The lower binding is however in place, and consists of a narrow strip of very fine grayish brown hide (Pantone 7531C), wrapped around the body above the nocked butt, which has 2 deep rectangular notches cut into opposite sides.
The arrow is nearly complete; the lower end of the surviving binding is loose, while the tip of the arrowhead has broken off and is missing.
It has a weight of 34.6 grams and a total length of 1063 mm.
The arrowhead has a length of 205 mm and a diameter of 9.3 mm, while the wooden shaft is 858 mm long, with a diameter of 9.3 by 8.5 mm, a nock length of 10 mm and lower binding 17 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. 1944.10.52 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 5/7/2005].
Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.52 [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. 1944.10.52 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 5/7/2005].
Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.52 [RTS 5/7/2005].
