Zande finger ring
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1934.8.145
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria near Tambura
Cultural Group:
Zande
Date Made:
By 1933
Materials:
Brass Metal
Process:
Hammered , Decorated , Incised , Polished
Dimensions:
outer Diam = 20.5 mm, inner diam = 19 mm; W band = 6.4 mm, th metal = 0.5 mm [RTS 27/5/2004].
Weight:
2.9 g
Local Name:
tungo [tongo?]
Other Owners:
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife on 29th April 1933 during a shooting expedition. Found unentered on 24th May 2004 with its object tag bearing provenance details attached, and matched to a formerly missing item in the list of ob
Field Collector:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton & Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Brayton)
PRM Source:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton
Acquired:
Donated 1934; found unentered 2004.
Collected Date:
29th April 1933
Description:
Penannular brass finger ring made from a rectangular strip of sheet metal, cut to form two points at either end in a fishtail shape.
This has been bent into an irregularly circular loop with the ends overlapping very slightly at their points.
Both inner and outer faces are flat, and the latter has been decorated with two parallel incised lines around the circumference, close to the upper and lower edges, with more lightly incised crosshatching between.
The ring is complete and intact, but the crosshatched decoration has worn away in places and is only clearly visible at either end.
The surface has been polished.
The object measures 20.5 mm across its outer diameter and 19 mm across the inside edges, the band is 6.4 mm wide and the metal approximately 0.5 mm thick, with a weight of 2.9 grams.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah on the road to Tambura on 29th April 1933, during a shooting expedition.
The Zande name for this type of object is said to be tungo. It is probably the same ring that Larken describes: "Men do not greatly favour ornaments ... the only jewellery that is universal is a flat brass ring, roughly chased ( tongo ) a quarter of an inch broad, of thin metal, or one of wire perhaps the tenth of an inch in section, with contiguous indentations" (P.M. Larken, 1926, "An Account of the Zande", Sudan Notes and Records IX no. 1, pp 37-38). The latter sounds rather similar to a Moru type of finger ring, see 1934.8.36.
This object is currently on display in the Lower Gallery, case 99A.
Rachael Sparks 25/9/2005.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah on the road to Tambura on 29th April 1933, during a shooting expedition.
The Zande name for this type of object is said to be tungo. It is probably the same ring that Larken describes: "Men do not greatly favour ornaments ... the only jewellery that is universal is a flat brass ring, roughly chased ( tongo ) a quarter of an inch broad, of thin metal, or one of wire perhaps the tenth of an inch in section, with contiguous indentations" (P.M. Larken, 1926, "An Account of the Zande", Sudan Notes and Records IX no. 1, pp 37-38). The latter sounds rather similar to a Moru type of finger ring, see 1934.8.36.
This object is currently on display in the Lower Gallery, case 99A.
Rachael Sparks 25/9/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[p.
248] -
MAJOR P.
H.
G.
POWELL-COTTON
, Quex Park, Birchington, E.
Kent.
Specimens collected by himself & Mrs Cotton, during hunting trips, 1933, viz: [...] [p.
261] 1934.8.145 - Brass finger ring with incised decoration, local name
tungo
.
ZANDE, road to Tambura 29/4/1933 (1011).
Found unentered, accessioned 24/5/2004 (RTS).
Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - Tungo ring ZANDE, TAMBURA, E. SUDAN (1011). d.d. Powell-Cotton 1934 [tied to object, RTS 24/5/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Zande Tribe". This object appears as item 1011: 'Finger ring, brass band engraved, native name Tungo , 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].
Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - Tungo ring ZANDE, TAMBURA, E. SUDAN (1011). d.d. Powell-Cotton 1934 [tied to object, RTS 24/5/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Zande Tribe". This object appears as item 1011: 'Finger ring, brass band engraved, native name Tungo , 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].
