Arrow, Burun?

Other views of this artifact:

Accession Number:

1944.10.55

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 , Incised

Dimensions:

Total L = 1055; arrowhead L = 376, diam = 9.2; shaft L = 679, diam = 10 x 9.2, nock L = 13, binding L = 15, W = 3 mm [RTS 25/5/2005].

Weight:

39.5 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 7C) with an extremely long, narrow body that swells out slightly then tapers in again just above its base. The upper part has been decorated with finely incised vertical zigzags, so closely spaced as to resemble crosshatching, and 5 pairs of deeper notches cut into opposite sides down the body over the top. The tang has been fitted into the socketed top of a yellow cane shaft with at least 5 segments along its body and a slightly oval section (Pantone 7510C). The surface has been smoothed and then bound round with narrow strips of a grayish brown animal hide (Pantone Warm Gray 11C), used to strengthen the junction of shaft and tang. 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. The arrow is complete, but has split along the upper part of its shaft. It has a weight of 39.5 grams and a total length of 1055 mm. The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 376 mm and a diameter of 9.2 mm, while the wooden shaft is 679 mm long, with a diameter of 10 by 9.2 mm and a nock length of 13 mm; the binding is 15 mm long and 3 mm wide.

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. 1944.10.55 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 25/5/2005].

Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.55 [RTS 24/5/2005].