Arrow, Burun?
Accession Number:
1944.10.54
Country:
Sudan
Region:
Blue Nile ?Darfung
Cultural Group:
?Burun
Date Made:
By 1912
Materials:
Cane Plant , Ebony Wood Plant , Animal Hide Skin
Process:
Carved , Notched , Socketed , Bound , Pyroengraved Pokerwork? , Decorated Incised
Dimensions:
Total L = 1043; arrowhead L = 399, diam = 8.7; shaft L = 644, diam = 9 x 8.5, nock L = 10, lower binding L = 11 mm [RTS 5/7/2005].
Weight:
34.9 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 part of the arrowhead has been decorated with a series of closely spaced zigzags down the length, while shaving marks are visible down the sides below.
At its base, the tang has been fitted into the hollowed-out top of an orangey brown oval sectioned cane shaft (Pantone 730C), with 4 segments along its body.
A narrow strip of hide has been wrapped around to cover the junction of arrowhead and shaft, probably to prevent the latter splitting on impact; this has a pinkish red surface colour that may be traces of a fixative (Pantone 4715C).
There is the remains of a similar binding around the lower shaft.
The butt of the shaft has been nocked, with 2 deep rectangular notches cut into opposite sides.
Just above the bound area, the lower shaft has been decorated with a series of wavy lines along its length, burnt into the surface.
The arrow is essentially complete, lacking only part of its lower binding, while the shaft has split just below the base of the arrowhead.
It has a weight of 34.9 grams and a total length of 1043 mm.
The arrowhead has a length of 399 mm and a diameter of 8.7 mm, while the wooden shaft is 644 mm long, with a diameter of 9 by 8.5 mm, a nock length of 10 mm and lower binding 11 mm long.
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 28/9/2005.
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 28/9/2005.
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.
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. 1944.10.54 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 5/7/2005].
Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.54 [RTS 5/7/2005].
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. 1944.10.54 [plastic label, tied to object; RTS 5/7/2005].
Written on object - BURUN, DAR FUNG, A.-E. SUDAN. 1944.10.54 [RTS 5/7/2005].
