Nuer or Dinka spear
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1940.12.619
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan]
Cultural Group:
?Nuer or Dinka
Date Made:
By 1940
Materials:
Ebony Wood Plant , Wood Plant , Animal Hide Skin
Process:
Carved , Socketed , Covered , Tooled , Polished
Dimensions:
Preserved L = 963; point L = 427 (to top of sheath), diam = 27 by 27.4; sheath L = 146, diam top = 30.3; shaft diam = 22.8 mm [RTS 12/7/2005].
Weight:
374.8 g
Other Owners:
Charles Gabriel Seligman and Brenda Zara Seligman?
Field Collector:
? Charles Gabriel Seligman & ?Brenda Zara Seligman
PRM Source:
Charles Gabriel Seligman or Brenda Zara Seligman
Acquired:
Donated 1940
Collected Date:
By 1940
Description:
Spear consisting of an narrow, elongated ebony point, with varicoloured dark reddish brown (Pantone 4625C) and lighter orangey brown surface (Pantone 4655C).
The base of this rests against the top of a long, narrow shaft made from orangey brown wood (Pantone 729C); both parts are slightly oval in section and have been polished.
The junction between the two has been covered with a cylindrical sheath, cut from a section of animal's tail with the hair mostly removed; this was shrunken in place over the base of the point and top of the shaft to keep these parts together, and the surface lightly tooled to create a rope-like design around the circumference.
The sheath is a dark reddish brown colour (Pantone 476C), and is complete.
The spear shaft has been broken off part-way down the body, perhaps deliberately by the collector to enable it to be transported more easily.
The spear is otherwise complete.
It has a weight of 374.8 grams, and a preserved length of 963 mm.
The point measures 427 mm in length, to the top of the sheath, and has a diameter of 28 by 27.4 mm; the sheath is 146 mm long and has an upper diameter of 30.3 mm, while the diameter of the shaft is 22.8 mm.
This spear was donated to the museum by Charles Gabriel Seligman, and may also have been collected by Seligman and his wife while conducting fieldwork in the region.
Evans-Pritchard, writing in 1940, said of the Nuer: 'Till recently they possessed very few iron spears, cherished as heirlooms, but used instead the straightened horns of antelope and buck, ebony wood, and the rib-bones of giraffe, all of which are still used to-day, though almost entirely in dances ...’ (E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1940, The Nuer, p. 86). Evans-Pritchard gives the Nuer term for this style of spear as giel (see 1936.10.1-3). Howell, on the other hand, gives the Nuer term for these spears as giit, while the iron headed spears were known as mur. He states that the giit were regarded 'with considerable amusement' by younger Nuer, but that a few were retained as they were 'considered particularly effective in war, and the Nuer hope they may one day be able to use them ... although it required greater skill and strength to inflict a wound with a giit, the wounds once inflicted are more severe'. He goes on to describe the method of hafting them: 'The giit ... is fixed at the joint with an unsewn leather collar made from the tail skin of an ox. This is soaked and stretched round the haft, where it shrinks as it dries'. (P.P. Howell, 1947, "On the Value of Iron Among the Nuer", Man 47, p. 132-3).
For similar spears with ebony points, see 1931.66.6-8, collected by E.E. Evans-Pritchard amongst the Nuer.
Rachael Sparks 30/9/2005.
This spear was donated to the museum by Charles Gabriel Seligman, and may also have been collected by Seligman and his wife while conducting fieldwork in the region.
Evans-Pritchard, writing in 1940, said of the Nuer: 'Till recently they possessed very few iron spears, cherished as heirlooms, but used instead the straightened horns of antelope and buck, ebony wood, and the rib-bones of giraffe, all of which are still used to-day, though almost entirely in dances ...’ (E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1940, The Nuer, p. 86). Evans-Pritchard gives the Nuer term for this style of spear as giel (see 1936.10.1-3). Howell, on the other hand, gives the Nuer term for these spears as giit, while the iron headed spears were known as mur. He states that the giit were regarded 'with considerable amusement' by younger Nuer, but that a few were retained as they were 'considered particularly effective in war, and the Nuer hope they may one day be able to use them ... although it required greater skill and strength to inflict a wound with a giit, the wounds once inflicted are more severe'. He goes on to describe the method of hafting them: 'The giit ... is fixed at the joint with an unsewn leather collar made from the tail skin of an ox. This is soaked and stretched round the haft, where it shrinks as it dries'. (P.P. Howell, 1947, "On the Value of Iron Among the Nuer", Man 47, p. 132-3).
For similar spears with ebony points, see 1931.66.6-8, collected by E.E. Evans-Pritchard amongst the Nuer.
Rachael Sparks 30/9/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[p.
468]
The late Professor C.G.
SELIGMAN, M.D., F.R.S.
Miscellaneous collection presented in part by himself, June, 1940, and in part, after his death, by Mrs B.Z.
Seligman, October, 1940.
[p.
504] 1940.12.619 - Similar ditto [to 1940.12.618 “Spear with long ebony head which is joined to the wooden shaft with a broad tightly fitting band of hide”].
?NUER or DINKA.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [RTS 23/7/2004].
Pitt Rivers Museum label - AFRICA, Sudan. Nuer or Dinka. Spear with ebony point. d.d. C.G. Seligman 1940.12.619 [plastic coated label, tied to object; RTS 12/7/2005].
Written on object - Spear with ebony head. ?NUER or DINKA? NILOTIC SUDAN. d.d. Dr C.G. Seligman [RTS 12/7/2005].
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [RTS 23/7/2004].
Pitt Rivers Museum label - AFRICA, Sudan. Nuer or Dinka. Spear with ebony point. d.d. C.G. Seligman 1940.12.619 [plastic coated label, tied to object; RTS 12/7/2005].
Written on object - Spear with ebony head. ?NUER or DINKA? NILOTIC SUDAN. d.d. Dr C.G. Seligman [RTS 12/7/2005].
