Shilluk tobacco pipe
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1996.2.1 .1 .2
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Juba? ?Upper Nile ?Malakal
Cultural Group:
Shilluk
Date Made:
By 1957
Materials:
Bamboo Plant , Gourd Plant , Animal Hide Skin Animal Tail , Animal Fur Skin , Pottery , Pigment , Plant Fibre
Process:
Carved , Hollowed , Socketed , Perforated , Handbuilt , Modelled Fire-Hardened Impressed Inlaid Stitched Twisted Tied Knotted Burnished
Dimensions:
Total L = 675, mouthpiece L = 157, max diam = 62, neck diam = 24, top opening = 7 mm; pipe shaft diam = 24.3, W cord = 3.7, base sheath L = 81, Ht pipe bowl = 125, W across front legs = 61; mouth opening = 24 by 32 mm [RTS 17/1/2005].
Weight:
509.3 g
Local Name:
?dak
Other Owners:
Bought by V. Copeland either in Juba, between 1949 and 1952, or Malakal in 1957, probably the latter; given to his nephew Edwin Barnes around 1957
Field Collector:
V. Copeland
PRM Source:
Edwin Barnes
Acquired:
Donated 1996/1/8
Collected Date:
1957?
Description:
Composite tobacco pipe consisting of a gourd and hide mouthpiece [.1] on a bamboo stem with pottery pipe bowl at its base [.2]; at the moment, the lower parts are firmly wedged together and cannot be easily separated.
The mouthpiece consists of 2 parts fitted closely together.
Its inner section is made from a small gourd with orange surface (Pantone 730C), partly worn away to a pale yellow (Pantone 7401C), with narrow mouth and elongated neck on an ovoid body.
A circular hole has been roughly cut into its base.
This has been fitted into an outer casing made from a section of animal's tail, stretched to cover the lower part of the gourd when wet and then folded and shrunken to form a narrow cylinder at its end that fits as a socket over the top of the bamboo pipe stem.
The hide is currently a pale yellowish brown colour (Pantone 7500C) and has a hole and a narrow slot cut into its surface.
There is only a very faint smell of tobacco associated with the mouthpiece, and it does not contain any fibre wadding.
The pipe stem is made from a length of orangey brown coloured bamboo (Pantone 722C), with a segmented body that is round in section and roughly hollowed throughout. There are a series of shallow cut lines around its upper part, just below the mouthpiece, which may have served as a guide for attaching the carrying loop, which is made from a length of yellow twisted 2 ply plant fibre cord (Pantone 7508C), wrapped 3 times around the shaft at this point and secured with a knot, extending down the side of the stem, and then terminating with a further knot at where it is attached to a loop made of a fibre strip, in turn secured to a hide band that covers the lower end of the bamboo shaft. There is a second, shorter length of twisted cotton cord tied onto the centre of this carrying loop. This is probably a later addition, perhaps to suspend the pipe from a wall or within a museum display.
At the lower end of the pipe shaft, there is a sheath made from a rectangular piece of animal hide, its surface covered with short mottled dark brown (Pantone 4625C) and buff hair. This has been folded around the shaft and then stitched down the joining sides using a narrow flat piece of plant fibre or bast, which is a light brown colour (Pantone 728C). These run in a roughly zigzag pattern along the join. This covers the junction of pipe shaft and bowl. The latter fits inside the sheath to rest against the base of the bamboo stem. It has been hand made from a moderately well levigated clay, covered with a reddish brown slip (Pantone 477C). This consists of a cylindrical pottery stem that joins onto a zoomorphic body, modelled in the shape of a hyena with four short splaying legs, a plump body and rounded head with broad oval mouth and semicircular ears. A flat crest runs from the base of the neck, over the head, and down to just above the mouth, where it ends in 2 small holes marking the nostrils. Slightly larger holes mark the eyes on either side. The back legs taper to small flattened undersides, but at the front the feet have been made broader and flatter. The surface has been decorated with a series of incised and impressed lines, filled and sometimes painted over with a white chalky pigment, arranged in broad areas but leaving some plain, highly burnished zones between them for contrast. The crest sides and interiors of each ear have been covered with solid white pigment, and a similar block of colour covers the underside of the body. The eyes have been surrounded by white circles, with a hatched band framing the mouth and underside of the chin; the back of the ears are covered with crosshatched lines. Somewhat randomly applied crosshatching and hatching also covers the legs and rump area, with a more discrete crosshatched band encircling the top of the pipe bowl stem.
The object is virtually complete, but there are 2 minor chips from the front legs and the side of one ear is damaged. It has a total weight of 509.3 grams, and is 675 mm long. The mouthpiece is 157 mm long, has a maximum diameter of 62 mm and a neck diameter of 24 mm, while its top opening is 7 mm wide. The pipe shaft has a diameter of 24.3 mm, and the carrying cord is 3.7 mm wide. The hide sheath at the stem base is 81 mm long, and the pipe bowl stands 125 mm high, with a width across the front legs of 61 mm; the mouth opening measures 24 by 32 mm across.
Bought by V. Copeland either in Juba, between 1949 and 1952, or more probably at Malakal in 1957; given to his nephew Edwin Barnes around 1957 and donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1996.
Shilluk commoners call the tobacco pipe dak , while its royal name is labo, meaning earth or mud. Tobacco is called athabo, or omaro by royalty, signifying its colour. The Shilluk use 2 types of dak – the dangduong and the dangthen. The former is kept within the family enclosure; the latter is more commonly used in public. The two types are not structurally different. They are made up of a pipe bowl (the base is known as tyel dak) , attached to a hollow stem ( obec dak – usually made from a plant known as obec ) with a skin sheath ( apyeth dak ), and at the top, the mouthpiece is made of skin, usually cow's tail ( apyeth agwayo ), fitted around a gourd plant ( agwayo ). A filtering material ( anywön ) is put into the latter through a hole in its base; this is made from a plant known as thitho, treated in a special way that makes the fibres very soft. This is changed when it becomes thick and bitter with nicotine. A wire instrument called a godi is used to remove bad anywön . When a new filter has been put into a pipe, it is often smoked by a number of people in an event known as Käki 'dak , where the beauty of a pipe can be shown off. The pipe in question is often decorated with beads and cuttings from the tails of newly born sheep for the occasion. Many pipes decorated with lion or human heads and other designs were produced by a Shilluk school teacher and sculptor called Mariano Gwado Ayoker during the early 1930's; he sold many of these and his wooden sculptures to the the Verona Fathers, and later the Mill Hill Fathers in Tonga and Malakal; he died in 1975. One of his lion pipes is currently in the British Museum (Kunijwok Gwado Ayoker of Wolfson College, Oxford, circa 1980's, from an unpublished paper titled "Reflections on Cultural Artifacts and History: the Case of a Shilluk Pipe", pp 2-5, 11-13, figs 1, 3; a copy of this is kept in Jeremy Coote's office).
Rachael Sparks 29/9/2005.
The pipe stem is made from a length of orangey brown coloured bamboo (Pantone 722C), with a segmented body that is round in section and roughly hollowed throughout. There are a series of shallow cut lines around its upper part, just below the mouthpiece, which may have served as a guide for attaching the carrying loop, which is made from a length of yellow twisted 2 ply plant fibre cord (Pantone 7508C), wrapped 3 times around the shaft at this point and secured with a knot, extending down the side of the stem, and then terminating with a further knot at where it is attached to a loop made of a fibre strip, in turn secured to a hide band that covers the lower end of the bamboo shaft. There is a second, shorter length of twisted cotton cord tied onto the centre of this carrying loop. This is probably a later addition, perhaps to suspend the pipe from a wall or within a museum display.
At the lower end of the pipe shaft, there is a sheath made from a rectangular piece of animal hide, its surface covered with short mottled dark brown (Pantone 4625C) and buff hair. This has been folded around the shaft and then stitched down the joining sides using a narrow flat piece of plant fibre or bast, which is a light brown colour (Pantone 728C). These run in a roughly zigzag pattern along the join. This covers the junction of pipe shaft and bowl. The latter fits inside the sheath to rest against the base of the bamboo stem. It has been hand made from a moderately well levigated clay, covered with a reddish brown slip (Pantone 477C). This consists of a cylindrical pottery stem that joins onto a zoomorphic body, modelled in the shape of a hyena with four short splaying legs, a plump body and rounded head with broad oval mouth and semicircular ears. A flat crest runs from the base of the neck, over the head, and down to just above the mouth, where it ends in 2 small holes marking the nostrils. Slightly larger holes mark the eyes on either side. The back legs taper to small flattened undersides, but at the front the feet have been made broader and flatter. The surface has been decorated with a series of incised and impressed lines, filled and sometimes painted over with a white chalky pigment, arranged in broad areas but leaving some plain, highly burnished zones between them for contrast. The crest sides and interiors of each ear have been covered with solid white pigment, and a similar block of colour covers the underside of the body. The eyes have been surrounded by white circles, with a hatched band framing the mouth and underside of the chin; the back of the ears are covered with crosshatched lines. Somewhat randomly applied crosshatching and hatching also covers the legs and rump area, with a more discrete crosshatched band encircling the top of the pipe bowl stem.
The object is virtually complete, but there are 2 minor chips from the front legs and the side of one ear is damaged. It has a total weight of 509.3 grams, and is 675 mm long. The mouthpiece is 157 mm long, has a maximum diameter of 62 mm and a neck diameter of 24 mm, while its top opening is 7 mm wide. The pipe shaft has a diameter of 24.3 mm, and the carrying cord is 3.7 mm wide. The hide sheath at the stem base is 81 mm long, and the pipe bowl stands 125 mm high, with a width across the front legs of 61 mm; the mouth opening measures 24 by 32 mm across.
Bought by V. Copeland either in Juba, between 1949 and 1952, or more probably at Malakal in 1957; given to his nephew Edwin Barnes around 1957 and donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1996.
Shilluk commoners call the tobacco pipe dak , while its royal name is labo, meaning earth or mud. Tobacco is called athabo, or omaro by royalty, signifying its colour. The Shilluk use 2 types of dak – the dangduong and the dangthen. The former is kept within the family enclosure; the latter is more commonly used in public. The two types are not structurally different. They are made up of a pipe bowl (the base is known as tyel dak) , attached to a hollow stem ( obec dak – usually made from a plant known as obec ) with a skin sheath ( apyeth dak ), and at the top, the mouthpiece is made of skin, usually cow's tail ( apyeth agwayo ), fitted around a gourd plant ( agwayo ). A filtering material ( anywön ) is put into the latter through a hole in its base; this is made from a plant known as thitho, treated in a special way that makes the fibres very soft. This is changed when it becomes thick and bitter with nicotine. A wire instrument called a godi is used to remove bad anywön . When a new filter has been put into a pipe, it is often smoked by a number of people in an event known as Käki 'dak , where the beauty of a pipe can be shown off. The pipe in question is often decorated with beads and cuttings from the tails of newly born sheep for the occasion. Many pipes decorated with lion or human heads and other designs were produced by a Shilluk school teacher and sculptor called Mariano Gwado Ayoker during the early 1930's; he sold many of these and his wooden sculptures to the the Verona Fathers, and later the Mill Hill Fathers in Tonga and Malakal; he died in 1975. One of his lion pipes is currently in the British Museum (Kunijwok Gwado Ayoker of Wolfson College, Oxford, circa 1980's, from an unpublished paper titled "Reflections on Cultural Artifacts and History: the Case of a Shilluk Pipe", pp 2-5, 11-13, figs 1, 3; a copy of this is kept in Jeremy Coote's office).
Rachael Sparks 29/9/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Related Documents File
- Acquisition record dated 8/1/96, donated by the Bishop of Richborough, the Right Reverend Edwin Barnes ...
Oxford, "Shilluk pipe, collected by donor's uncle Mr V.
Copeland in the 1950's".
Letter from Jeremy Coote to Edwin Barnes, dated 8th January 1996, with thanks for the donation and mentioning that the pipe had been sent to conservation.
Paper with Barnes' letter head, dated 8th January 1996, with typed phrase 'Shilluk pipe'.
Letter from Barnes to Curator, dated 28th January 1996, with further information about this object: "My uncle thinks he purchased it in Juba, between 49/52, though it was possibly during a later posting in Malakal in 1957.
He gave it to me on his return, and I think it was almost certainly during the later visit since in '57 I was an undergraduate, and believe that was when he gave the pipe to me".
He then gives further biographical data on V.
Copeland [see Biographies database; RTS 15/12/2003].
Letter dated 5th February from Coote to Barnes with thanks for information.
Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - AFRICA, SUDAN, SHILLUK PIPE d.d. Mr V. COPELAND 1996.2.1 [Plastic tag with metal ring, tied to object; RTS 17/1/2005].
Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - AFRICA, SUDAN, SHILLUK PIPE d.d. Mr V. COPELAND 1996.2.1 [Plastic tag with metal ring, tied to object; RTS 17/1/2005].
