Moru Misa cooking pot
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1979.20.33
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria ?Lui ?Lanyi
Cultural Group:
Moru Misa
Date Made:
By 1979
Materials:
Pottery
Process:
Handbuilt , Decorated , Impressed , Incised , Fire-Hardened
Dimensions:
Ht = 205, rim diam = 161 x 146, shoulder W = 220, th rim = 4.5 mm [RTS 17/5/2005].
Weight:
> 1000 g
Other Owners:
Collected by Patti Langton between 27th January and 5th February 1979 as part of the British Institute in Eastern Africa's Expedition to the Southern Sudan [RTS 15/6/2004].
Field Collector:
Patti Langton
PRM Source:
Patti Langton
Acquired:
Purchased 1979
Collected Date:
Between 27 January and 5 February 1979
Description:
Pottery vessel hand made from a moderately well levigated fabric with tiny mica inclusions, fired at a low temperature to create a mottled reddish brown (Pantone 4645C) and black coloured exterior, and predominantly black interior.
The vessel has a rounded, upright rim that has a slight groove incised just below the mouth on both inner and outer walls, above a broad, short concave neck with walls flaring convexly out to a globular body with rounded shoulders and convex base.
The entire body has been covered with impressed decoration, composed of closely spaced oval depressions that were possibly made using some kind of roulette tool; in a few areas, these have been distorted or smoothed, probably as the pot was being hand turned while the decoration was being applied.
This area has been defined around its top edge with a row of deeply impressed triangles.
The vessel is essentially complete, but has a crack running down the rim on one side and is chipped at several places around the rim.
It has a weight in excess of 1000 grams, and is 205 mm high, with a rim diameter of 161 by 146 mm and a wall thickness at this point of 4.5 mm; the maximum diameter across the shoulders of the vessel is 220 mm.
Collected by Patti Langton as part of the British Institute in Eastern Africa's Expedition to the Southern Sudan. The place and date of collection is not noted, but judging by other objects with this information, the expedition was collecting Moru material from Lui and Lanyi between between 27th January and 5th February 1979. Records do not give the local name for this form, or any information on how it was used. For a similar Moru Misa vessel made from the same fabric and with comparable decoration, see 1979.20.13 (a neckless bowl used for cooking sorghum porridge).
For a photograph showing a female Moru potter using a roulette to apply decoration to a pottery vessel, see N. Barley, 1994, Smashing Pots, p. 36 top (photograph by John Mack; this similarly covers large parts of the vessel surface). Different styles of grass roulette may be found in the Pitt Rivers Museum collection; plaited grass strings (1979.20.28, Moru Misa; 1979.20.125-6, from the Dinka Tuich), and string wrapped around sticks (1949.20.27, Moru Misa). A number of South Sudanese clays seem to contain particles of mica, including those used by the Zande and Bongo (P.M. Larken, 1926, "An Account of the Zande", Sudan Notes and Records IX no. 1, p. 4; G. Schweinfurth, 1873, In the Heart of Africa Volume I, p. 292; Volume II, p. 25).
Rachael Sparks 29/8/2005.
Collected by Patti Langton as part of the British Institute in Eastern Africa's Expedition to the Southern Sudan. The place and date of collection is not noted, but judging by other objects with this information, the expedition was collecting Moru material from Lui and Lanyi between between 27th January and 5th February 1979. Records do not give the local name for this form, or any information on how it was used. For a similar Moru Misa vessel made from the same fabric and with comparable decoration, see 1979.20.13 (a neckless bowl used for cooking sorghum porridge).
For a photograph showing a female Moru potter using a roulette to apply decoration to a pottery vessel, see N. Barley, 1994, Smashing Pots, p. 36 top (photograph by John Mack; this similarly covers large parts of the vessel surface). Different styles of grass roulette may be found in the Pitt Rivers Museum collection; plaited grass strings (1979.20.28, Moru Misa; 1979.20.125-6, from the Dinka Tuich), and string wrapped around sticks (1949.20.27, Moru Misa). A number of South Sudanese clays seem to contain particles of mica, including those used by the Zande and Bongo (P.M. Larken, 1926, "An Account of the Zande", Sudan Notes and Records IX no. 1, p. 4; G. Schweinfurth, 1873, In the Heart of Africa Volume I, p. 292; Volume II, p. 25).
Rachael Sparks 29/8/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[p.
185] - 1979.20 (.1 - 206) P[urchase] MISS PATTI LANGTON, DEPT.
of ETHNOLOGY & PREHISTORY, OXFORD.
Collection made by Patti Langton during the British Institute in East Africa's expedition to the Southern Sudan; Jan.
- April 1979.
The collection was made in three culture areas during the dry season.
The amount paid for each object is listed if the information is known.
In Jan.
1979 £1 is equivalent to 95 piastres (pt.) Sudanese.
This documentation is based largely upon Patti's own list of objects and her notes on these.
Sometimes objects included in the Pitt Rivers alottment of the collection do not appear on her list and have been added here.
See Related Documents file as well.
[pp 185 - 186] 1979.20.1 - 42 SOUTHERN SUDAN the MORU MISA The Moru Misa live about 100 miles west of Juba, the capital of the Southern Sudan.
Part of the collection was made in Lui, a small town which has had extensive church and missionary activity over the past 50 years (excluding the period of civil war) and which now boasts a church, a hospital and a number of schools.
The rest of the Moru Misa collection was made at Lanyi, 15 miles away, where the paramount chief of the area, Chief Elinama, arranged for people to bring artifacts for us to buy.
Although money is known to the Moru, its use is limited and the concept of selling belongings is foreign to them.
Hence the low prices and the relatively small number of artefacts.
The Moru Misa are a geographical section of the Moru people.
The Moru practice agriculture for subsistence; they do not keep cattle any longer.
[p.
190] 1979.20.33 - Pot, a similar construction and ware to 1979.20.3, [1979.20] .13.
H = 20 cm., Diam.
mouth = 160 cm.
Coll.
no.
7.
Additional Accession Book Entry [in red biro under accession number] - A5-F32-10.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [but diam mouth given as 16 cm, not 160 cm; RTS 2/6/2004].
Related Documents File - 1979.20 contains a typed packing list, which has been annotated; a typed list of objects arranged by Langton collection numbers and with pencil and biro annotations, and a handwritten list of objects by museum number, essentially repeating this information and annotated with PRM photo numbers in red. This handwritten list seems to be the direct source for the accession book entry. This object appears on Langton's list as a pencilled addition [RTS 12/1/2004].
Written on object - 7 [white chalk, inside pot body]; S. SUDAN, Moru Misa, Pat Langton Coll. 7, 1979.20.33 [inside rim; RTS 17/5/2005].
Additional Accession Book Entry [in red biro under accession number] - A5-F32-10.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [but diam mouth given as 16 cm, not 160 cm; RTS 2/6/2004].
Related Documents File - 1979.20 contains a typed packing list, which has been annotated; a typed list of objects arranged by Langton collection numbers and with pencil and biro annotations, and a handwritten list of objects by museum number, essentially repeating this information and annotated with PRM photo numbers in red. This handwritten list seems to be the direct source for the accession book entry. This object appears on Langton's list as a pencilled addition [RTS 12/1/2004].
Written on object - 7 [white chalk, inside pot body]; S. SUDAN, Moru Misa, Pat Langton Coll. 7, 1979.20.33 [inside rim; RTS 17/5/2005].
