Zande barkcloth beater
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1934.8.126
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria near Tambura
Cultural Group:
Zande
Date Made:
By 1933
Materials:
Animal Ivory Tooth
Process:
Carved , Incised
Dimensions:
L = 83.7, MxW = 51.2, MxTh = 34.5, working end W = 44.5, Th = 34.2, base W = 27.7, th = 25.5 mm [RTS 2/3/2005].
Weight:
164.7 g
Local Name:
wata
Other Owners:
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Hannah Brayton Slater) on 29th April 1933 during a shooting expedition, along the road to Tambura [RTS 29/7/2005].
Field Collector:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton & Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Hannah Brayton Slater)
PRM Source:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton
Acquired:
Donated 1934
Collected Date:
29th April 1933
Description:
Head of a beater for working barkcloth, carved from a single piece of yellowish brown ivory (Pantone 7510C).
This has been cut flat at either end, and has a cylindrical body with sides that taper in towards the base, where it would have been hafted to a handle; there are a series of rough horizontal cut marks around this area.
The beater head is oval in section throughout.
The broader, upper end is the working surface; this has been covered with incised crosshatching that runs out to the extreme edges.
There is some polish over the raised 'teeth' of this area, suggesting use.
The sides of the beater head are somewhat irregular, with several tool marks still visible, despite the fact that these surfaces appear to have been polished.
It has a weight of 164.7 grams, and is 83.7 mm long; the working end measures 44.5 by 34.2 mm across, the maximum width is 51.2 and the maximum body thickness is 34.5, while the base is 27.7 mm long and 25.5 mm wide.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Hannah Brayton Slater) on 29th April 1933 during a shooting expedition, along the Road to Tambura.
Powell-cotton gives the Zande name for an ivory barkcloth beater as wata , 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).
Rachael Sparks 29/7/2005.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Hannah Brayton Slater) on 29th April 1933 during a shooting expedition, along the Road to Tambura.
Powell-cotton gives the Zande name for an ivory barkcloth beater as wata , 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).
Rachael Sparks 29/7/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[p.
248] 1934 [insert] 8 [end insert] -
MAJOR P.
H.
G.
POWELL-COTTON
, Quex Park, Birchington, E.
Kent.
Specimens collected by himself & Mrs Cotton, during hunting trips, 1933, viz: [...] [p.
260] - From the
ZANDE
tribe, LIRANGO, YAMBIO, DINGBA & TAMBURA [...] [insert] 126 [end insert] -
Wata
, small ivory head of a bark-cloth mallet, TAMBURA (1007).
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 2/2/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Zande Tribe". This object appears as item 1007: “Ivory bark cloth mallet, ivory 3 1/4", no handle, native name Wata , 29/4/33 Road to Tambura, 5.35 N 27.30 E". Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].
Pitt Rivers Museum label - wata , ivory bark-cloth mallet (handle missing). ZANDE, TAMBURA, E. SUDAN. 5° 35' N., 27° 30' E. d.d. Major Powell-Cotton 1934 (1007) [paper label stuck to side of object; RTS 2/3/2005].
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 2/2/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Zande Tribe". This object appears as item 1007: “Ivory bark cloth mallet, ivory 3 1/4", no handle, native name Wata , 29/4/33 Road to Tambura, 5.35 N 27.30 E". Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].
Pitt Rivers Museum label - wata , ivory bark-cloth mallet (handle missing). ZANDE, TAMBURA, E. SUDAN. 5° 35' N., 27° 30' E. d.d. Major Powell-Cotton 1934 (1007) [paper label stuck to side of object; RTS 2/3/2005].
