Nuer jar

Other views of this artifact:

Accession Number:

1936.10.31

Country:

Sudan

Region:

[Southern Sudan]

Cultural Group:

Nuer

Date Made:

By 1936

Materials:

Pottery

Process:

Handbuilt , Fire-Hardened , Burnished

Dimensions:

Ht = 137, rim L = 93, rim W = 87, neck W = 100, shoulder W = 140, base L = 41, base W = 38 mm [RTS 24/11/2004].

Weight:

582.0 g

Other Owners:

This object was probably collected in 1935 or 1936, when Evans-Pritchard held a research fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust (see E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1940, The Nuer) [RTS 28/9/2004].

Field Collector:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

PRM Source:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Acquired:

Donated 1936

Collected Date:

1935 - 1936

Description:

Small pottery container hand made from a well levigated fabric, fired a patchy mid gray to black across surfaces outside and in (Pantone black 7C). The exterior walls have been burnished, with vertical burnishing strokes visible down the surface. The vessel has an irregular, rounded, upright rim, roughly circular in plan view, that has been indented in places where the potter's fingers have gripped this from both sides. There is a short, poorly defined neck below this, flaring out and down into a deep body with high rounded shoulder with the walls sloping in convexly below to a narrow and only slightly defined flat base. This allows the vessel to stand upright, but not securely. The inside of the jar shows traces of its former contents, in the form of an encrusted residue on the lower walls, in various shades of cream to brown, with a marked cream line running around the vessel at an angle representing the top edge of liquid contents that were allowed to sit before evaporating. There is some further white discolouration of the walls above this. These walls also show some horizontal tool marks, while the neck and rim above them appears to have been smoothed by hand and water to a more slurried finish. The vessel is complete and intact, with some surface dirt adhering to the outside walls. It has a weight of 582.0 grams, is 137 mm high, with a rim that measures 87 by 93 mm across, a neck width of 100 mm, a shoulder width of 140 mm and a base that measures 41 by 38 mm.

This object was collected by Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard when he held a research fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust (see E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1940, The Nuer ), either during May to July 1935, when he worked amongst the Nuer Lou and Eastern Jikany, or from October to November 1936, when he was working amongst the Karlual section of the Nuer Leek, in Western Nuerland (pers. comm. Chris Morton 2004).

This jar was used in milking. According to Evans-Pritchard, milking is carried out by women, girls and uninitiated boys; if a pot or broad mouthed gourd is used, it is gripped between the knees while squeezing two teats of the cow at a time. This is done once in the morning and again in the evening. (E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1940, The Nuer, pp 22-3).

Currently on display in the Upper Gallery, case 26A.

Rachael Sparks 18/9/2005.

Primary Documentation:

Accession Book Entry [p. 410] - 1936 [insert] 10 [end insert] E. EVANS-PRITCHARD, M.A., Exeter College, Oxford. - Specimens collected by himself in the EASTERN SUDAN, while travelling with a Grant from the Rockefeller Leverhulme Trustees, viz: [p. 412] [insert] 31 [end insert] - Milking-bowl of hand-made pottery, NUER.
Additional Accession Book Entry [p. 411] - 1936.10.31 number given - LW. H[eight] = ca. 14.5 cm; Diam. mouth = 9 cm. [insert, red biro, above number] A4-F11-32.

Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [RTS 23/7/2004].

Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - Milking-pot. NUER, E. SUDAN. d.d. E. Evans-Pritchard 1936 [rectangualar paper tag, stuck to side of object; some of the glue appears to have deteriorated; RTS 24/11/2004].