Arrow, Burun?

Other views of this artifact:

Accession Number:

1944.10.69

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 , Pyroengraved Pokerwork , Decorated Incised

Dimensions:

Total L = 975; arrowhead L = 367, diam = 12 x 9; shaft L = 608, diam = 9.5 x 8.5, nock L = 12, binding L = 31 mm [RTS 26/5/2005].

Weight:

40.5 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 to its base. The upper third of the body has been covered with shallow incised crosshatching, over which a series of deep notches have been cut in pairs, with 4 pairs preserved in part down the length. The arrowhead has broken across the uppermost pair, and the point is currently missing. There are some shaving marks down the rest of the body, the base of which has been fitted into the socketed top of a segmented cane shaft with 5 sections, very slightly oval in section. This is yellowish brown in colour (Pantone 730C). The junction of tang and shaft is obscured by binding, made from a narrow strip of grayish brown animal hide that was designed to prevent the wood splitting on impact (Pantone Warm Gray 10C). This type of arrow would normally have similar binding just above the butt, but in this example the binding is missing. The shaft has a nocked end, with 2 rectangular notches cut into either side. Just above this, the shaft has been decorated with what may be an owners mark, consisting of 2 bands of incised crosshatching, applied while turning the shaft and with the ends of the bands staggered so they do not quite meet, below which are 4 rows of 6 short horizontal lines each, arranged around the circumference. Both motifs show signs of scorching and may have been applied using a heated blade. The arrow is nearly complete, but missing its tip and some binding; the shaft has split at several points along the body. It has a weight of 40.5 grams and a total length of 975 mm. The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 367 mm and a diameter of 12 by 9 mm, while the wooden shaft is 608 mm long, with a diameter of 9.5 by 8.5 mm and a nock length of 12 mm; the binding is 31 mm long.

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. 1944.10.69 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 26/5/2005].

Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.69 [RTS 24/5/2005].