Arrow, Burun?
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1944.10.58
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 = 1072; arrowhead L = 185, diam = 8; shaft L = 887, diam = 8.3 x 8.7, nock L = 12, upper binding L = 10, lower binding L = 16 mm [RTS 25/5/2005].
Weight:
32.4 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 double bevelled tip on a narrow 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 row of 4 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 730C).
The surface of the shaft is smooth, and it has been bound over the junction of arrowhead and shaft with a narrow strip of a brown animal hide to prevent the wood splitting on impact; This binding looks to be incomplete.
There is a second area of grayish brown binding just above the nocked butt (Pantone Warm Gray 9C), which has 2 rectangular notches cut into opposite sides.
The arrow is complete, except perhaps for the binding mentioned above; the shaft has split immediately below the top and parts of the shaft are stained with a reddish brown material.
It has a weight of 32.4 grams and a total length of 1072 mm.
The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 185 mm and a diameter of 8 mm, while the wooden shaft is 887 mm long, with a diameter of 8.3 by 8.7 mm and a nock length of 12 mm; the binding is 10 mm long around the upper part, and 16 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.
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. 1944.10.58 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 25/5/2005].
Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.58 [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. 1944.10.58 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 25/5/2005].
Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.58 [RTS 24/5/2005].
