Bongo bow
Accession Number:
1884.15.103
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan]
Cultural Group:
Bongo
Date Made:
?Before 1858
Materials:
Wood Plant , Animal Sinew
Process:
Carved , Stained , Twisted , Bound , Tied Strung , Grooved
Dimensions:
L = 1538, shaft W = 25.5, th = 23.7 (at centre), end diam shaft = 8.5 x 8; stringing L = 1235, string diam = 3.5 mm [RTS 27/9/2005].
Weight:
362.5 g
Local Name:
hunyu?
Other Owners:
Collected by Petherick between 1856 and 1858, and shipped back to England in 1859. Subsequently acquired by Pitt Rivers, perhaps via auction, as Petherick is known to have auctioned some of his collection through Mr Bullock of High Holborn, London, on 27t
Field Collector:
John Petherick
PRM Source:
Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection
Acquired:
Donated 1884
Collected Date:
1856 - 1858
Description:
Bow carved from a single piece of wood, smoothed across the surface and stained a reddish brown colour (Pantone 4635C, deepening to Pantone 469C).
This has an oval section and tapers to a point at either end; it has been strung so the shaft forms a long, shallow arc.
A broad groove has been cut into the inside edge, near the centre of the shaft.
Lengths of narrow binding material, probably sinew, have been bound around either end of the bow shaft to form 'stops' that prevent the ends of the bow string from slipping; these have been fastened with a neat row of knots in a row down the outer face, and are stained red, which was probably done at the same time as the shaft itself.
The bow string has been made from twisted sinew; this is a yellowish brown colour (Pantone 7504C), that has darkened across much of its surface.
One end of the string was bound around the lower end of the shaft, then tightened with a slip knot; the string was then strung up to the top of the bow and fitted over the end with a similar loop, resting directly above the binding stop.
The bow is currently tautly strung and has no knots along its length.
It is complete, with a weight of 362.5 grams and a shaft that is 1538 mm long, 25.5 mm wide and 23.7 mm thick at its centre, and has an end diameter of 8.5 by 8 mm.
The string has a diameter of 3.5 mm and is strung to a length of 1235 mm.
Collected by Petherick between 1856 and 1858, when he led three separate trading expeditions that passed through Bongo territory, and shipped back to England in 1859 (see Petherick 1861, Egypt, The Sudan and Central Africa for more details). Subsequently acquired by Pitt Rivers, perhaps via auction, as Petherick is known to have auctioned some of his collection through Mr Bullock of High Holborn, London, on 27th June 1862 (see the Catalogue of the very interesting collection of arms and implements of war, husbandry, and the chase, and articles of costume and domestic use, procured during several expeditions up the White Nile, Bahr-il-Gazal, and among the various tribes of the country, to the cannibal Neam Nam territory on the Equator, by John Petherick, Esq., H.M. Consul, Khartoum, Soudan ). The auction included some 32 bows, of which 6 are said to be Bongo. Pitt Rivers sent this object to Bethnal Green Museum for display, as part of the first batch of objects sent there, probably in 1874. It was later displayed in the South Kensington Museum, and transferred from there in 1884 to form part of the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum.
Petherick described the use of the bow and arrow by the Bongo (whom he called the Dor) as follows: "... the favourite weapon of the Dor is the bow and arrow, with which they use three or four fearfully barbed spears, and clubs ... The workmanship of the arrows will bear inspection, when it will be found that the heads of scarcely two are alike, and the generality of them so numerously barbed that extraction cannot take place without making a considerable incision to free it from the muscle or flesh in which it may be imbedded. Occasionally some of these arrows are poisoned; this, however, with the Dor is but rarely the case, as they are also used in the chase. ... The tactics of the Dor when giving battle are to run up to within fifty or sixty yards of the enemy and discharge a quantity of arrows at him and, if not successful, to undertake as rapid a retreat: when followed, and approached, they receive a similar flight of arrows, which, after endeavouring to evade by a series of gymnastics, as soon as they are spent, they repeat the charge, and so on, until on one side or the other so many arrows have taken effect as to impede the rapid movements of a certain number of the party, which is taken advantage of by a hot pursuit: then, when encumbered by the arrows, the men that have been so hit, unable to extract them and accompany their unscathed companions, drop behind, and thus become the objects at whom to throw barbed lances... (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 Services Institution IV no. 13, p. 174 ff). See also J. Petherick, 1861, Egypt, The Soudan and Central Africa, p. 400.
Petherick gives the 'Dor' name for a bow as hunyu (Petherick 1861, Egypt, The Sudan and Central Africa , p. 482). It is not known if this term refers to a specific type of bow or not.
This could be the bow illustrated in J. Petherick 1861, figure opposite p. 173, no. 13, and again in J. & K. Petherick, 1869, Travels in Central Africa, p. 227, which also appears in his unpublished sketchbook on p. 12 (Wellcome library MS 5789). However the drawing is not specific enough to be certain. It is also similar to the object illustrated in J.G. Wood, 1869, The Natural History of Man Vol. I, p. 494 no. 1, but it is not clear if this is supposed to be the same piece. The binding at the top of the image (actually the 'lower' binding) is drawn as much longer than in this example. Either drawing could equally refer to 1884.15.102.
Rachael Sparks 27/9/2005.
Collected by Petherick between 1856 and 1858, when he led three separate trading expeditions that passed through Bongo territory, and shipped back to England in 1859 (see Petherick 1861, Egypt, The Sudan and Central Africa for more details). Subsequently acquired by Pitt Rivers, perhaps via auction, as Petherick is known to have auctioned some of his collection through Mr Bullock of High Holborn, London, on 27th June 1862 (see the Catalogue of the very interesting collection of arms and implements of war, husbandry, and the chase, and articles of costume and domestic use, procured during several expeditions up the White Nile, Bahr-il-Gazal, and among the various tribes of the country, to the cannibal Neam Nam territory on the Equator, by John Petherick, Esq., H.M. Consul, Khartoum, Soudan ). The auction included some 32 bows, of which 6 are said to be Bongo. Pitt Rivers sent this object to Bethnal Green Museum for display, as part of the first batch of objects sent there, probably in 1874. It was later displayed in the South Kensington Museum, and transferred from there in 1884 to form part of the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum.
Petherick described the use of the bow and arrow by the Bongo (whom he called the Dor) as follows: "... the favourite weapon of the Dor is the bow and arrow, with which they use three or four fearfully barbed spears, and clubs ... The workmanship of the arrows will bear inspection, when it will be found that the heads of scarcely two are alike, and the generality of them so numerously barbed that extraction cannot take place without making a considerable incision to free it from the muscle or flesh in which it may be imbedded. Occasionally some of these arrows are poisoned; this, however, with the Dor is but rarely the case, as they are also used in the chase. ... The tactics of the Dor when giving battle are to run up to within fifty or sixty yards of the enemy and discharge a quantity of arrows at him and, if not successful, to undertake as rapid a retreat: when followed, and approached, they receive a similar flight of arrows, which, after endeavouring to evade by a series of gymnastics, as soon as they are spent, they repeat the charge, and so on, until on one side or the other so many arrows have taken effect as to impede the rapid movements of a certain number of the party, which is taken advantage of by a hot pursuit: then, when encumbered by the arrows, the men that have been so hit, unable to extract them and accompany their unscathed companions, drop behind, and thus become the objects at whom to throw barbed lances... (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 Services Institution IV no. 13, p. 174 ff). See also J. Petherick, 1861, Egypt, The Soudan and Central Africa, p. 400.
Petherick gives the 'Dor' name for a bow as hunyu (Petherick 1861, Egypt, The Sudan and Central Africa , p. 482). It is not known if this term refers to a specific type of bow or not.
This could be the bow illustrated in J. Petherick 1861, figure opposite p. 173, no. 13, and again in J. & K. Petherick, 1869, Travels in Central Africa, p. 227, which also appears in his unpublished sketchbook on p. 12 (Wellcome library MS 5789). However the drawing is not specific enough to be certain. It is also similar to the object illustrated in J.G. Wood, 1869, The Natural History of Man Vol. I, p. 494 no. 1, but it is not clear if this is supposed to be the same piece. The binding at the top of the image (actually the 'lower' binding) is drawn as much longer than in this example. Either drawing could equally refer to 1884.15.102.
Rachael Sparks 27/9/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book IV entry
[p.
32] [insert] 1884.15 (cont.) [end insert] WEAPONS BOWS (cont.) ARCHER'S GUARDS & RINGS [insert] 103 [end insert] - 242 - Similar bow ['wooden bow with tapering ends & twisted sinew cord'] of better wood, more cleanly made.
ibid
[DOR.
C.
AFRICA].
Petherick coll.
Black book entry [8] - 173-5. Bows (3). Dor Tribe. Central Africa. Co[sul] Petherick (241). [Insert] 1884.15.101-103 [end insert].
Delivery Catalogue II entry [p. 199] - Plain bows Asiatic and Pacific Isles [p. 200] - Wood bow & string. C. Africa. 242. Screen 8 [cases] 240 & 241.
Pitt Rivers Catalogue Entry (1874) [p. 45] - ... their neighbours of Karague use a bow 6 feet 3 inches long, bent only at the ends, like those of the Egyptian sculptures. Those of the Dor tribe of the White Nile, Nos 240 to 242, are of exactly the same form ... [p. 57] SCREEN 8. PLAIN BOWS. [p. 58] AFRICA. 240 to 242. Three bows bent at the ends only, like the Ancient Egyptian. Dor tribe, Central Africa. Obtained by Petherick.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card; the object catalogue cards add a photographic reference: PR 330(H) [RTS 7/4/2004].
Pitt Rivers Museum label -
Written on object - DOR TRIBE, CENT. AFRICA. OBTD BY PETHERICK. P.R. 242 [RTS 27/9/2005].
Black book entry [8] - 173-5. Bows (3). Dor Tribe. Central Africa. Co[sul] Petherick (241). [Insert] 1884.15.101-103 [end insert].
Delivery Catalogue II entry [p. 199] - Plain bows Asiatic and Pacific Isles [p. 200] - Wood bow & string. C. Africa. 242. Screen 8 [cases] 240 & 241.
Pitt Rivers Catalogue Entry (1874) [p. 45] - ... their neighbours of Karague use a bow 6 feet 3 inches long, bent only at the ends, like those of the Egyptian sculptures. Those of the Dor tribe of the White Nile, Nos 240 to 242, are of exactly the same form ... [p. 57] SCREEN 8. PLAIN BOWS. [p. 58] AFRICA. 240 to 242. Three bows bent at the ends only, like the Ancient Egyptian. Dor tribe, Central Africa. Obtained by Petherick.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card; the object catalogue cards add a photographic reference: PR 330(H) [RTS 7/4/2004].
Pitt Rivers Museum label -
Written on object - DOR TRIBE, CENT. AFRICA. OBTD BY PETHERICK. P.R. 242 [RTS 27/9/2005].
Display History:
Displayed in Bethnal Green and South Kensington Museums (V&A).
[AP]
Publication History:
This could be the bow illustrated in J.
Petherick 1861, figure opposite p.
173, no.
13, and again in J.
& K.
Petherick, 1869, Travels in Central Africa, p.
227; it appears in his unpublished sketchbook on p.
12 (Wellcome library MS 5789).
However the drawing is not specific enough to be certain, and 1884.15.102 could equally be the object illustrated. Similar to J.G.
Wood, 1869, The Natural History of Man Vol.
I, p.
494 no.
1, but it is not clear if this is supposed to be the same piece.
The binding at the top of the image (actually the 'lower' binding) is drawn as much longer than in this example [RTS 27/9/2005].
