Arrow, Burun?

Other views of this artifact:

Accession Number:

1944.10.68

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 , Pyroengraved Pokerwork ? Incised

Dimensions:

Total L = 996; arrowhead visible L = 341, diam = 9; shaft L = 655, diam = 9, nock L = 9; upper binding L = 22, lower binding L = 11, decorated band L = 38 mm [RTS 5/7/2005].

Weight:

37.9 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 412C), with a narrow, elongated body that tapers out slightly along its length before narrowing again at its base. The upper third of the body has been covered with shallow incised crosshatching, over which 4 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. There are some shaving marks down the rest of the body, the base of which has been fitted into the socketed top of a round sectioned cane shaft with parts of 5 segments preserved along its length. The surface of the shaft is an orangey brown colour (Pantone 729C). The junction of tang and shaft is obscured by binding, made from a narrow strip of grayish brown animal hide that was intended to prevent the wood splitting on impact (Pantone 7531C). There is similar binding around the shaft just above its nocked butt, which has 2 deep rectangular notches cut into either side. The shaft has been decorated just above the butt with a band of incised zigzags, so closely spaced that they appear like crosshatched lines in some areas. The incisions appear to be filled with a dark material, but may be actually pyroengraved. The arrow is nearly complete, but half the tip is missing from the arrowhead and there is a large depression on one side of the head where a chip may have broken off at some time in the past, while the shaft split immediately below its junction with the point. It has a weight of 37.9 grams and a total length of 996 mm. The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 341 mm and a diameter of 9 mm, while the wooden shaft is 655 mm long, with a diameter of 9 mm and a nock length of 9 mm; the binding is 22 mm long around the upper part, and 11 mm long around the lower end, while the band of incised decoration is 38 mm in length.

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. 1944.10.68 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 26/5/2005].

Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.68 [RTS 24/5/2005].