1909.65.7

Collection type

Object

Description

Long curved throwing knife/sword with wooden hilt. The blade has a concave edge, decorated near the tip with incised lines. [SM 04/06/2007]

Long description

Long curved throwing knife/sword with wooden hilt. The blade has a concave edge, decorated near the tip with incised lines. The blade is tanged into the wooden hilt and the end of the tang has been hammered back into the expanded butt of the hilt. There is a curved and barbed spur on the edge of the blade just above where it joins the hilt. The blade is of approximately the same width for the majority of its length with an angled wider tip. The tip has two perforated holes and a longer perforation which are decorated one one side with stamped dots and on the other with punched dots and ?incised chevrons. The tip is also decorated with grooves on one side. The rest of the blade is decorated on one side only with incised or stamped lines and dashes. [SM 04/06/2007]

Geographical reference

Congo, Democratic Republic of

Africa > Central Africa > Congo, Democratic Republic of

Mongala River

Person

Field collector Unknown Collector

PRM source Stevens Auction Rooms

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1909

Date collected

By 1909

Acquisition information

Purchased: 1909

Materials and processes

Material Iron Metal, Material Wood Plant, Process Forged (Metal), Process Carved, Process Perforated, Process Punched, Process Grooved, Process Incised

Dimensions

Length: max 881 mm, Width: max 83 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1909.65.7

Research and responses

This may have been one of the swords originally associated with a display label reading: "4 long chopper swords with spurs. AZANDE & MONGALLA R. Purch. ... 1905, 1909" [rectangular display label, now stored in RDF 1905.68.10; RTS 18/5/2005].

Search terms: Weapon, Tool, Sword, Knife, Throwing Knife