Arrow, Burun?
Accession Number:
1944.10.70
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 , Bound , Incised
Dimensions:
Total L = 1017; visible arrowhead L = 298, diam = 10.5 x 9; shaft L = 711, diam = 9.8 x 9.4, nock L = 13, upper binding L = 10, lower binding L = 18 mm [RTS 28/9/2005].
Weight:
34.2
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 body has been covered with rows of shallow incised zigzags, closely spaced so this appears like crosshatching, over which 6 groups of incised lines have been cut in pairs running down the length, which each pair at right angles to the pairs above and below it.
The tip of the arrowhead has broken off and is missing.
There are clear shaving marks down the rest of the body, the base of which has been fitted 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 orangey brown in 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 designed to prevent the wood splitting on impact (Pantone 7531C).
There is a light patch of wood below this, suggesting the original binding may have extended further down the shaft.
There is similar binding around the lower shaft, just above a nocked butt with 2 rectangular notches cut into either side.
The lower shaft has been decorated with four bands of vertical hatching, about two thirds the way down its length.
Apart from its missing tip, the arrow is complete.
It has a weight of 34.2 grams and a total length of 1017 mm.
The visible part of the arrowhead has a length of 298 mm and a diameter of 10.5 by 9 mm, while the wooden shaft is 711 mm long, with a diameter of 9.8 by 9.4 mm, a nock length of 13 mm, upper binding length of 10 mm and lower binding 18 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 28/9/2005.
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 28/9/2005.
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 Dar Fung. Cane arrow with ebony point. Don. Mrs L. Gorringe. 1944.10.70 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 28/9/2005].
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 Dar Fung. Cane arrow with ebony point. Don. Mrs L. Gorringe. 1944.10.70 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 28/9/2005].
