Arrow, Burun?

Other views of this artifact:

Accession Number:

1944.10.61

Country:

Sudan

Region:

Blue Nile ?Darfung

Cultural Group:

?Burun

Date Made:

By 1912

Materials:

Cane Plant , Ebony Wood Plant , Animal Hide Skin , Pigment

Process:

Carved , Notched , Socketed , Bound , Decorated , Incised

Dimensions:

Total L = 1037; arrowhead L = 376, diam = 9; shaft L = 661, diam = 9.5 x 9.3, nock L = 11, upper binding L = 24, lower binding L = 24 mm [RTS 26/5/2005].

Weight:

42.9 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, elongated body that tapers out slightly along its length before narrowing again at its base. The upper body has been covered with shallow incised crosshatching, over which 6 groups of deeper 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 top of the arrowhead has broken off, possibly at the point where a further pair of lines cut into the body. 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. The shaft is yellow in colour (Pantone 7509C), but much of the surface has been stained a dark reddish brown (Pantone 4695C). The junction of tang and shaft is obscured by binding, made from a narrow strip of animal hide that was designed to prevent the wood splitting on impact. There is similar binding around the shaft just above its nocked butt, which has 2 rectangular notches cut into either side. The shaft is decorated with a wide band of incised crosshatching just below its mid point, and a further band of incised decoration just above the lower binding, the surface of which is largely accreted. The arrow is nearly complete, missing the tip of the arrowhead; the shaft has also split in the decorated area, and at the butt. It has a weight of 42.9 grams and a total length of 1037 mm. The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 376 mm and a diameter of 9 mm, while the wooden shaft is 661 mm long, with a diameter of 9.5 x 9.3 mm and a nock length of 11 mm; the binding is 24 mm long around the upper part, and 24 mm long around the lower end.

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. 1944.10.61 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 26/5/2005].

Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.61 [RTS 24/5/2005].