Arrow, Burun?
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1944.10.65
Country:
Sudan
Region:
Blue Nile ?Darfung
Cultural Group:
?Burun
Date Made:
By 1912
Materials:
Cane Plant , Ebony Wood Plant , Animal Hide Skin , Pigment
Process:
Carved , Notched , Socketed , Bound , Decorated
Dimensions:
Total L = 1043; arrowhead L = 383, diam = 8.5; shaft L = 660, diam = 9.5 x 8.7, nock L = 9, binding L = 22, W = 2 mm [RTS 26/5/2005].
Weight:
35.3 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 narrow body that tapers out slightly along its length before narrowing again at its base.
The upper body has been decorated with a series of deep notches, cut horizontally across the body, in 2 columns with 6 notches on each side of the body.
Shaving marks are visible down the rest of the body, which has been fitted at its base into the socketed top of a cane shaft with a body made up of 6 segments along its length, very slightly oval in section.
This is yellow in colour (Pantone 729C), but largely stained a darker reddish brown, particularly towards the lower end (Pantone 4695C).
This has been bound around the junction of tang and shaft with a narrow strip of animal hide, also partially stained red, perhaps from use of some kind of fixative; this was designed to prevent the wood splitting on impact.
While this type of arrow usually has similar binding just above the butt, it appears to be missing in this instance.
The shaft has a nocked end, with 2 rectangular notches cut into either side.
Apart from the missing binding, the arrow is complete, but has split down the top of the shaft.
It has a weight of 35.3 grams and a total length of 1043 mm.
The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 383 mm and a diameter of 8.5 mm, while the wooden shaft is 660 mm long, with a diameter of 9.5 by 8.7 mm and a nock length of 9 mm; the binding is 22 mm long and 2 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.
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. 1944.10.64 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 26/5/2005].
Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.65 [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. 1944.10.64 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 26/5/2005].
Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.65 [RTS 24/5/2005].
