Zande barkcloth beater
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1927.54.61
Country:
?Sudan , ? Congo, Democratic Republic of , ? Congo, People's Republic of
Region:
[Southern Sudan]
Cultural Group:
Zande?
Date Made:
By 1888
Materials:
Animal Ivory Tooth
Process:
Carved , Incised
Dimensions:
L = 176, diam base = 52.3 x 30, diam handle = 11.5 x 8.5 mm [RTS 30/6/2005].
Weight:
266.4 g
Other Owners:
Collected by James Sligo Jameson, and donated to the museum by his daughter, Mrs Macdonnell in 1927.
Field Collector:
James Sligo Jameson
PRM Source:
Mrs Macdonnell
Acquired:
Donated 1927
Collected Date:
1887 - 1888
Description:
Barkcloth beater carved from a single piece of yellow ivory (Pantone 7401C) that is much darker on one side (Pantone 7510C).
This has been cut flat at one end with a cylindrical body, oval in section, that tapers to form a narrow handle, with shallow circular depressions cut into either side as finger holds.
The flat base has been covered with incised crosshatching that runs to the extreme edges, creating a series of rough points across the working surface.
There is some use damage around the edges of this.
The surface of the ivory has been polished, but still shows numerous cut marks.
The object is nearly complete, but has 2 large flat areas on either side of the base where some damage appears to have occurred, with some subsequent repolishing.
There is also some surface cracking at handle and face.
It has a weight of 266.4 grams and is 176 mm long, measuring 52.3 by 30 mm across the broad base and 11.5 by 8.5 mm at the opposite end.
Collected by James Sligo Jameson, and donated to the museum by his daughter, Mrs Macdonnell in 1927.
In 1933, Powell-cotton gave the Zande name for an ivory barkcloth beater as wata (see 1934.8.125-126), a term also mentioned by Larken, who describes the manufacture of Zande barkcloth as follows: "During the rains, about July, two horizontal cuts are made round the stem four or five feet apart, a perpendicular one joining them. The bark is loosened and removed in a single piece. The outer skin is scraped away with a knife, and the dark brown fibrous remainder beaten on a log with a wata. This is usually the point of a small tusk about a foot long. The pointed end is used as a handle, the other, of which the face has been scored with a series of closely-crossing lines to a depth of about the tenth of an inch, as a stamp, the bark, lying on the log, being punched all over with it. The process is gradual, and not too much force may be employed. The fibres become spread out and the thickness of the substance reduced, though somewhat unevenly so. The resulting cloth when dry is of a light reddish brown colour, harsh in texture, and bearing throughout its not very long life the marks of the corrugations on the face of the wata " (P.M. Larken, 1926, "An Account of the Zande", Sudan Notes and Records IX no. 1, pp 34-35). Brock also described the process: 'the latter [barkcloth] is prepared with oil and beaten out with a piece of ivory cut off the end of an elephant's tusk, the end where it is cut off being grooved in a criss-cross fashion which makes a pattern on the cloth' (R.G.C. Brock, "Some Notes on the Zande Tribe as Found in the Meridi District", Sudan Notes and News 1, 1918, 254).
For ivory barkcloth beaters of similar form, see 1931.66.15 and 1934.8.125, both from the Zande. Another Zande example, 1934.8.126, has a squatter body with less of a taper. A Zande origin is tentatively suggested on the basis of these parallels, although with the suggested origin in the Congo, a Mangbetu origin may also be a possibility.
Rachael Sparks 29/7/2005.
Collected by James Sligo Jameson, and donated to the museum by his daughter, Mrs Macdonnell in 1927.
In 1933, Powell-cotton gave the Zande name for an ivory barkcloth beater as wata (see 1934.8.125-126), a term also mentioned by Larken, who describes the manufacture of Zande barkcloth as follows: "During the rains, about July, two horizontal cuts are made round the stem four or five feet apart, a perpendicular one joining them. The bark is loosened and removed in a single piece. The outer skin is scraped away with a knife, and the dark brown fibrous remainder beaten on a log with a wata. This is usually the point of a small tusk about a foot long. The pointed end is used as a handle, the other, of which the face has been scored with a series of closely-crossing lines to a depth of about the tenth of an inch, as a stamp, the bark, lying on the log, being punched all over with it. The process is gradual, and not too much force may be employed. The fibres become spread out and the thickness of the substance reduced, though somewhat unevenly so. The resulting cloth when dry is of a light reddish brown colour, harsh in texture, and bearing throughout its not very long life the marks of the corrugations on the face of the wata " (P.M. Larken, 1926, "An Account of the Zande", Sudan Notes and Records IX no. 1, pp 34-35). Brock also described the process: 'the latter [barkcloth] is prepared with oil and beaten out with a piece of ivory cut off the end of an elephant's tusk, the end where it is cut off being grooved in a criss-cross fashion which makes a pattern on the cloth' (R.G.C. Brock, "Some Notes on the Zande Tribe as Found in the Meridi District", Sudan Notes and News 1, 1918, 254).
For ivory barkcloth beaters of similar form, see 1931.66.15 and 1934.8.125, both from the Zande. Another Zande example, 1934.8.126, has a squatter body with less of a taper. A Zande origin is tentatively suggested on the basis of these parallels, although with the suggested origin in the Congo, a Mangbetu origin may also be a possibility.
Rachael Sparks 29/7/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
-
MRS MACDONNELL
, ...
Glos.
Specimens collected by her father, the late J.S.
Jameson, in Borneo, S.
Africa and Equatorial Africa, viz.
- From EQUATORIAL AFRICA: 1887-8 - Ivory bark-cloth beater, CONGO.
Pitt Rivers Museum label - Equatorial Africa, Congo. Ivory barkcloth beater. J.S. Jameson coll., d.d. Mrs MacDonald, 1927.57.61 [plastic coated label, tied to object; RTS 30/6/2005].
Written on object - Ivory bark-cloth mallet. BELGIAN CONGO J.S. Jameson coll. 1887-8 d.d. Mrs. MacDonnell, 1927 [L.Ph 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 17/2/2005]
Pitt Rivers Museum label - Equatorial Africa, Congo. Ivory barkcloth beater. J.S. Jameson coll., d.d. Mrs MacDonald, 1927.57.61 [plastic coated label, tied to object; RTS 30/6/2005].
Written on object - Ivory bark-cloth mallet. BELGIAN CONGO J.S. Jameson coll. 1887-8 d.d. Mrs. MacDonnell, 1927 [L.Ph 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 17/2/2005]
