Parry shield, Dinka?
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1944.10.21
Country:
Sudan?
Region:
[Southern Sudan?]
Cultural Group:
Dinka?
Date Made:
By 1912
Materials:
Wood Plant
Process:
Carved , Hollowed , Stained
Dimensions:
L = 1485; grip W = 102.5, th = 92.5, handle W = 35 mm [RTS 15/7/2005].
Weight:
>1000 g
Local Name:
?kuerr kwerr ?quayre ?quer
Other Owners:
Collected by L. Gorringe, husband of donor Mrs L. Gorringe.
Field Collector:
L. Gorringe
PRM Source:
Mrs L. Gorringe
Acquired:
Donated October 1944
Collected Date:
1902 - 1912
Description:
Wooden parrying shield, carved from a single piece of soft, lightweight wood, possibly ambatch wood, stained a light orangey brown colour (Pantone 729C).
This consists of a narrow body with swollen centre, tapering to a rounded point at either end.
This swollen area represents the handle grip, and has convex sides and back.
It has been hollowed out from its inside face to leave a narrow rectangular handle running across the top of the opening.
The inside face of the handle has two flat sides that slope in towards one another to meet at an angle, while the inside wall of the grip opposite is concave to allow room for the knuckles.
The back of the shield curves down from the centre towards each end, and except for the central section, has a slight ridge running along its length.
The opposite face is mostly straight, and has been cut flat.
The shield is complete, but has numerous gouges out the surface that look to have been caused by weapon blows.
It has a weight in excess of 1000 grams, and is 1485 mm long.
The central grip area is 102.5 mm wide and 92.5 mm thick, while the handle is roughly 35 mm wide.
Collected by L. Gorringe in the Sudan sometime between 1902 and 1912, and donated to the Museum by his widow in October 1944.
This shield is thought to be Dinka on the basis of its style, which is similar to Dinka shield 1944.10.20, and also 1936.10.11 (Ngok Dinka), 1931.66.10 and 1934.8.9 (Dinka). Schweinfurth gives the Dinka name for this type of shield as kuerr / Kwerr (G. Schweinfurth, 1875, Artes Africanae, pl. I, figs 13-15, giving the wood species as diospyrus mespiliformis; G. Schweinfurth The Heat of Africa, 1873, vol. 1, p. 156, in anglicised spelling as quayre ). However note that Petherick also illustrated the type, which he associated with the Mundu, a group located between the Dinka and the Zande (J. Petherick, 1861, "On the Arms of the Arab and Negro Tribes of Central Africa, Bordering on the White Nile", Journal of the Royal United Service Institution IV no. 13, fig. 16). The Shilluk 'parallels' quoted in the accession book entry (H.A. Bernatzik, 1929, Zwischen Weissem Nil and Belgisch-Kongo, fig. 131; C.W. Domville-Fife, 1927, Savage Life in the Black Sudan , p. 69 and fig. on p. 70) should be disregarded, as they actually represent a different type of parrying shield, made of lightweight ambatch wood, with a squatter, blunt-ended body.
Most of the shields of this type carry a shallow groove along their inside face, probably designed to allow a spear to slot in place, enabling both to be carried together more easily and freeing up the other hand. That groove is not present on this example ( D. Plasche & M.A. Zirngibl, 1992, African Shields, p. 75).
Rachael Sparks 30/9/2005.
Collected by L. Gorringe in the Sudan sometime between 1902 and 1912, and donated to the Museum by his widow in October 1944.
This shield is thought to be Dinka on the basis of its style, which is similar to Dinka shield 1944.10.20, and also 1936.10.11 (Ngok Dinka), 1931.66.10 and 1934.8.9 (Dinka). Schweinfurth gives the Dinka name for this type of shield as kuerr / Kwerr (G. Schweinfurth, 1875, Artes Africanae, pl. I, figs 13-15, giving the wood species as diospyrus mespiliformis; G. Schweinfurth The Heat of Africa, 1873, vol. 1, p. 156, in anglicised spelling as quayre ). However note that Petherick also illustrated the type, which he associated with the Mundu, a group located between the Dinka and the Zande (J. Petherick, 1861, "On the Arms of the Arab and Negro Tribes of Central Africa, Bordering on the White Nile", Journal of the Royal United Service Institution IV no. 13, fig. 16). The Shilluk 'parallels' quoted in the accession book entry (H.A. Bernatzik, 1929, Zwischen Weissem Nil and Belgisch-Kongo, fig. 131; C.W. Domville-Fife, 1927, Savage Life in the Black Sudan , p. 69 and fig. on p. 70) should be disregarded, as they actually represent a different type of parrying shield, made of lightweight ambatch wood, with a squatter, blunt-ended body.
Most of the shields of this type carry a shallow groove along their inside face, probably designed to allow a spear to slot in place, enabling both to be carried together more easily and freeing up the other hand. That groove is not present on this example ( D. Plasche & M.A. Zirngibl, 1992, African Shields, p. 75).
Rachael Sparks 30/9/2005.
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.
379] 1944.10.21 - Parrying shield, of the same type [as 1944.10.20 "a neatly carved narrow piece of wood, comparatively thick and rounded in the centre, which is hollowed out from the sides so as to provide a protected handle, and symmetrically tapering, in width as well as in depth, towards both ends; with an edge in front and a groove at the back, both running the whole length of the long axis"], longer but of much lighter wood (ambach wood?), less carefully carved.
more rounded than the preceding specimen, and without either the frontal edge or the dorsal groove.
Length 4 '10 3/4 ".
Probably the same provenance as last ["DINKA, WHITE NILE."].
Additional Accession Book Entry [p. 376] - To 1944.10.20/21. The type is figured, e.g. in the Brit[ish] Mus[eum] Handbook of the Ethnogr[aphic] Coll[ection] (1910), on p. 194, Fig. 170, 2. The specimens are rather longer than the usual length which seems to be about 3 ft. or slightly more. According to Schweinfurth, this weapon is “quite peculiar to the Dinka”, but the type [p. 378] has more recently also been recorded from the Shilluk, in ambach (sic) wood, e.g. by Bernatzik: Zwischen Weissem Nil and Belgisch-Kongo, fig. 131, and by Domville-Fife: Savage Life in the Black Sudan, p. 69 and fig. on p. 70. According to the latter, the ambach (sic) shield is used as an arm guard when lion hunting and also when fighting from canoes or rafts. Schweinfurth gives the Dinka name as kuerr (or, in the English edition: The Heat of Africa, 1878, vol. 1, p. 54, in anglicised spelling as quayre ), another spelling is quer .
Card Catalogue Entry - The card gives the same information a the accession book, with comment 'V. note by Dr Meinhard, pp 376 nad 378 (of the accession book) [RTS 6/4/2004].
Pitt Rivers Museum label - AFRICA, SUDAN, ?DINKA. Wooden parrying shield. Don. Mrs L. Gorringe, 1944.10.21 [plastic coated label with metal eyelet, tied to object]; Wooden parrying shield. DINKA, WHITE NILE, A.E. SUDAN. Coll. by Capt. L. Gorringe, 1902-1912. d.d. Mrs L. Gorringe, 1944.10.21 [rectangular paper label stuck to side of object; RTS 22/6/2005].
Additional Accession Book Entry [p. 376] - To 1944.10.20/21. The type is figured, e.g. in the Brit[ish] Mus[eum] Handbook of the Ethnogr[aphic] Coll[ection] (1910), on p. 194, Fig. 170, 2. The specimens are rather longer than the usual length which seems to be about 3 ft. or slightly more. According to Schweinfurth, this weapon is “quite peculiar to the Dinka”, but the type [p. 378] has more recently also been recorded from the Shilluk, in ambach (sic) wood, e.g. by Bernatzik: Zwischen Weissem Nil and Belgisch-Kongo, fig. 131, and by Domville-Fife: Savage Life in the Black Sudan, p. 69 and fig. on p. 70. According to the latter, the ambach (sic) shield is used as an arm guard when lion hunting and also when fighting from canoes or rafts. Schweinfurth gives the Dinka name as kuerr (or, in the English edition: The Heat of Africa, 1878, vol. 1, p. 54, in anglicised spelling as quayre ), another spelling is quer .
Card Catalogue Entry - The card gives the same information a the accession book, with comment 'V. note by Dr Meinhard, pp 376 nad 378 (of the accession book) [RTS 6/4/2004].
Pitt Rivers Museum label - AFRICA, SUDAN, ?DINKA. Wooden parrying shield. Don. Mrs L. Gorringe, 1944.10.21 [plastic coated label with metal eyelet, tied to object]; Wooden parrying shield. DINKA, WHITE NILE, A.E. SUDAN. Coll. by Capt. L. Gorringe, 1902-1912. d.d. Mrs L. Gorringe, 1944.10.21 [rectangular paper label stuck to side of object; RTS 22/6/2005].
