Moru Misa roulette
Accession Number:
1979.20.28
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria ?Lui ?Lanyi
Cultural Group:
Moru Misa
Date Made:
By 1979
Materials:
Grass Fibre Plant
Process:
Plaited , Twisted
Dimensions:
L = 150 mm, W strips = 6.3 mm, Th = 7 mm [RTS 28/5/2004].
Weight:
1.2 g
Other Owners:
Gift to Patti Langton between 27 January and 5 February 1979, while part of the British Institute in Eastern Africa's Expedition to the Southern Sudan [RTS 1/6/2004]
Field Collector:
Patti Langton
PRM Source:
Patti Langton
Acquired:
Purchased 1979
Collected Date:
Between 27 January and 5 February 1979
Description:
Roulette for decorating pottery, made from two narrow strips of grass fibre, 6.3 mm wide, put together to make a double thickness, doubled over and then plaited loosely together from the top down to form a concertina-like box chain.
This method of production creates several twists down the length of the body.
The ends are roughly tied together at the bottom, and have begun to fray at the edges.
The roulette is complete, with some minor cracking along the surface of the grass, and currently a pale yellow colour (Pantone 7402C).
It is 150 mm long, 6.3 to 6.5 mm wide, and 7 mm thick, with a weight of 1.2 grams.
This object was given to Patti Langton as a gift, while working as part of the British Institute in Eastern Africa's Expedition to the Southern Sudan. The place and date of collection are not noted for this item, but other records show that the expedition was collecting Moru material from Lui and Lanyi between 27th January and 5th February 1979. She does not record its Moru Misa name.
For a photograph showing a Moru pottery using a roulette to apply decoration to a pottery vessel, see Barley, N., 1994, Smashing Pots, p. 36 top (photograph by John Mack). For a similar grass roulette, used by the northern Larim, see 1979.20.149. Different styles of grass roulette are also found in the collection; plaited grass strings (1979.20.125-6, from the Dinka Tuich), and string wrapped around sticks (1949.20.27, Moru Misa).
A black and white photograph of this roulette was published as Figure 3 on page 130 of 'Culture and Technology in the Pottery of the Medieval Sahel: A Preliminary View from the Makarauci Valley, Niger', by Anne Haour and Ruth Galpine, in Journal of African Archaeology , Vol. III, no. 1 (2005), pp. 127-37. Haour and Galpine illustrate the piece as an example of a generic 'pleated strip roulette'.
Rachael Sparks 29/8/2005; amended, Jeremy Coote 27/10/2005.
This object was given to Patti Langton as a gift, while working as part of the British Institute in Eastern Africa's Expedition to the Southern Sudan. The place and date of collection are not noted for this item, but other records show that the expedition was collecting Moru material from Lui and Lanyi between 27th January and 5th February 1979. She does not record its Moru Misa name.
For a photograph showing a Moru pottery using a roulette to apply decoration to a pottery vessel, see Barley, N., 1994, Smashing Pots, p. 36 top (photograph by John Mack). For a similar grass roulette, used by the northern Larim, see 1979.20.149. Different styles of grass roulette are also found in the collection; plaited grass strings (1979.20.125-6, from the Dinka Tuich), and string wrapped around sticks (1949.20.27, Moru Misa).
A black and white photograph of this roulette was published as Figure 3 on page 130 of 'Culture and Technology in the Pottery of the Medieval Sahel: A Preliminary View from the Makarauci Valley, Niger', by Anne Haour and Ruth Galpine, in Journal of African Archaeology , Vol. III, no. 1 (2005), pp. 127-37. Haour and Galpine illustrate the piece as an example of a generic 'pleated strip roulette'.
Rachael Sparks 29/8/2005; amended, Jeremy Coote 27/10/2005.
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.
189] 1979.20.28 - Pottery roulette made of twisted and plaited grass.
L = 15 cm.
Also a gift.
Coll.
no.
305B.
Additional Accession Book Entry [in red biro under accession number] - A5-F32-18 [photographed with 1979.20.27].
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [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].
Additional Accession Book Entry [in red biro under accession number] - A5-F32-18 [photographed with 1979.20.27].
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [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].
Publication History:
Illustrated in black and white as Figure 3 on page 130 of 'Culture and Technology in the Pottery of the Medieval Sahel: A Preliminary View from the Makarauci Valley, Niger', by Anne Haour and Ruth Galpine, in Journal of African Archaeology, Vol.
III, no.
1 (2005), pp.
127-37.
Haour and Galpine illustrate the piece as an example of a generic 'pleated strip roulette'.
[JC 27 10 2005]
