- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Miniature ceramic jar with everted rim, biconical body and convex base, used to hold rainstones [RTS 24/8/2004].
- Long description
- Small ceramic jar, consisting of an everted rim with narrow flat-topped lip sloping slightly down into the mouth, squared off at the outer lip edge, then flaring in to a broad neck that has been defined by an incised line around its base. The body is biconical, with a broad convex base. The vessel has been handmade from a well levigated clay, fired dark gray throughout (Pantone black 7C). The surface has traces of a lighter brown colour, which may be either remnants of a slip or simply adhering dirt (Pantone 7508C). The jar is complete and intact, and has a weight of 49.3 grams. It has a height of 50 mm, and the mouth opening is 21 mm across, with a rim diameter of 35 mm, a neck diameter of 31.3 mm, and a maximum diameter across the centre of the body of 55.6 mm. Note that the vessel has a small capacity, and would only hold a few rainstones [RTS 24/8/2004].
- Geographical reference
- Bahr el Jebel Eastern Equatoria
- Person
- Field collector Charles Gabriel Seligman
- Field collector Brenda Zara Seligman
- PRM source Charles Gabriel Seligman
- PRM source Brenda Zara Seligman
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1940
- Date collected
- By 1940
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1940
- Materials and processes
- Material Pottery, Process Handbuilt, Process Fire-Hardened, Process Slipped
- Dimensions
- Diameter 35 mm rim, Diameter: max 55.6 mm, Diameter 21 mm mouth, Height 50 mm, Weight 49.3 g
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1940.12.615
- Research and responses
Lotuko appears to be an alternative name for the Otuho. Mongalla province was created in 1906 and replaced by Equatoria province in 1934; it covered what later became the modern administrative provinces of Eastern Equatoria, Bahr el Jebel and a small part of Western Equatoria. The use of the term by Seligman might imply that they collected the object prior to 1934; however they may have continued to use the term in its old sense even after the change of name - see the map published in H. MacMichael, The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
For an examples of the types of rainstones used by the Bari and Lugbara, see 1946.8.100.
The use of such jars is described by Cole as follows: "[the rainmaker] next produces a pot, roughly made of clay, in which he keeps his rain-stones. These are stones which have been found upon the hills and are curious either for their shape or colour. I brought several of them to England, and some were found on examination to be pieces of rock crystal, aventurine and amethyst. The stones are then covered with water and the chief takes in his hand a peeled cane, which is split at the top, and with this he beckons the clouds towards him..." (W.E. Reymes Cole, 1910, "African Rain-making chiefs, the Gondokoro District, White Nile, Uganda", Man 10, p. 91). See also the discussion of the use and significance of rainstones in the southern Sudan in S. Simonse, 1992, Kings of Disaster, 292-301 [RTS 24/8/2004].
Search terms: Vessel, Religion, Religious Object