Arrow, Burun?

Other views of this artifact:

Accession Number:

1944.10.59

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 = 939; arrowhead L = 238, diam = 8.5; shaft L = 701, diam = 10.2 by 8.8, nock L = , upper binding L = 13 and W = 2 to 3 mm [RTS 25/5/2005].

Weight:

33.4 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 broken 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 at least 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 730C). The surface of the shaft is smooth, and it has been shaved at its top. There is a rectangular area just below the junction of shaft and arrowhead which is lacks the surface discolouration of the rest of the body, and was probably originally covered by a length of binding used to prevent the wood splitting on impact. This binding is made from a narrow strip of grayish brown animal hide (Pantone 7504C); this was found as a loose coil around the lower tang, and secured back in its place by conservation. This type of arrow usually has a further section of binding around the butt, just above the nocked end, but it is currently missing. The end of the shaft has 2 rectangular notches cut into either side. The shaft is also decorated with a broad band of incised crosshatching, immediately below the binding. The arrow is nearly complete, missing the tip of the arrowhead and some of its binding, and with the shaft split near its upper and lower ends. It has a weight of 33.4 grams and a total length of 939 mm. The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 238 mm and a diameter of 8.5 mm, while the wooden shaft is 701 mm long, with a diameter of 10.2 by 8.8 mm and a nock length of 13 mm; the binding is 13 mm long and 2-3 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. 1944.10.59 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 25/5/2005].

Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.59 [RTS 24/5/2005].