Lango hammer
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1934.8.89
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] ?Eastern Equatoria Lomuleng
Cultural Group:
Lango
Date Made:
By 1933
Materials:
Wood Plant
Process:
Carved , Polished
Dimensions:
L = 385 mm, L head = 230 mm, W head = 121.7 mm, Th head = 101.8 mm, diam handle = 34.5 mm [RTS 5/7/2004].
Weight:
Approx. 950 g.
Local Name:
logino
Other Owners:
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah on 1st March 1933 during a shooting expedition [RTS 5/7/2004].
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:
1st March 1933
Description:
Heavy mallet carved from a single piece of yellowish brown wood (Pantone 730C at surface and 7509C where scratched).
This consists of a horizontal head piece that takes the shape of a sideways cone, with the broadest part forming the striking surface at one end, and the body tapering in to a narrow flat-faced butt at the other.
These are both ovoid in section, while the upper and lower surfaces of this head piece are concave.
A sharp ridge has been carved on the latter, extending from the broader end to the top of the handle.
The handle has been placed almost at right angles to the head, but curving in slightly to form an arc.
It is thickest at the top, has a roughly cylindrical body, and then flares out at the base, the underside of which has been carved to have a bevelled edge running in to a flat centre.
The mallet is nearly complete, but has a large chip missing from one side of the head, damage to handle butt and numerous splits, most of which run across the sides of the head, away from the impact point.
A couple of small seeds are caught in similar cracks on the hammer end.
There are also numerous cut marks present on the head.
The handle has been highly polished, especially around the grip, some of which may represent use wear; slight polish is also present on the sides and end of the head.
The grain of the wood is highly visible; this appears as a series of concentric rings on the striking end of the head part.
The mallet has a length of 385 mm, while the head part is 230 mm long, with a maximum width of 121.7 mm and thickness of 101.8 mm; the hammer butt measures 29 by 25 mm across, while the handle has a diameter of 34.5 mm, and its end measures 46 by 43.5 mm.
The mallet weighs approximately 950 grams.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Lomuleng on 1st March 1933, during a shooting expedition. It is known in Lango as logino.
Powell-Cotton made ethnographic films during his 1932-3 shooting expedition to southern Sudan; footage included Lango men cutting and making spear shafts, and a Lango potter at work (see the description in Mrs Powell Cotton, "Village Handicrafts in the Sudan", Man 34 (112), pp 90-91).
Rachael Sparks 24/9/2005.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Lomuleng on 1st March 1933, during a shooting expedition. It is known in Lango as logino.
Powell-Cotton made ethnographic films during his 1932-3 shooting expedition to southern Sudan; footage included Lango men cutting and making spear shafts, and a Lango potter at work (see the description in Mrs Powell Cotton, "Village Handicrafts in the Sudan", Man 34 (112), pp 90-91).
Rachael Sparks 24/9/2005.
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.
256] - From the
LANGO
tribe, LOKOFOROK, LOMULENG & LOMO.
[insert] 89 [end insert] - Heavy wooden mallet, in one piece,
logino
.
LOMULENG..
Card Catalogue Entry - The catalogue card repeats the accession book information, but adds 'collector's number not given'. However the number was in fact mentioned in the original RDF list, and was also marked on object in pencil [RTS 24/5/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Lango Tribe". This object appears as item 368: "Wood mallet, native name Logino , 1/3/33 Lomuleng, 3.47 N. 33.1 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].
Written on object - 368. [pencil, on head] Mallet, logino , LANGO, LOMULENG, E. SUDAN. d.d. Major Powell Cotton, 1934 (368) [ink, on handle; RTS 5/7/2004].
Card Catalogue Entry - The catalogue card repeats the accession book information, but adds 'collector's number not given'. However the number was in fact mentioned in the original RDF list, and was also marked on object in pencil [RTS 24/5/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Lango Tribe". This object appears as item 368: "Wood mallet, native name Logino , 1/3/33 Lomuleng, 3.47 N. 33.1 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].
Written on object - 368. [pencil, on head] Mallet, logino , LANGO, LOMULENG, E. SUDAN. d.d. Major Powell Cotton, 1934 (368) [ink, on handle; RTS 5/7/2004].
