Bamboo bow with notched end, shaft bound with reptile skin and sinew string [RTS 28/9/2005].

Collection type: Object
Description: Bamboo bow with notched end, shaft bound with reptile skin and sinew string [RTS 28/9/2005].
Long description: Bow made from a single piece of jointed yellow bamboo with 7 segments visible (Pantone 7510C), partially stained a deep purplish red across the surface (Pantone 4695C). The shaft is almost round in section, following the natural shape of the parent plant, but it has been shaved flat along the inside face and sides at either end, where the body begins to taper, creating a rectangular section. A deep notch has been cut into the side of one end, while the other end has been carved down on both sides to form shoulders with a long square sectioned peg extending from the centre. Both peg and notch were probably designed to help keep the ends of the bow string in place. The bow has been strung with a length of twisted grayish brown sinew cord (Pantone 7531C), making the ends of the shaft curve inwards to form a shallow arc; the centre of the bow remains largely straight, due to the jointed nature of the wood. A narrow strip of reptile skin has been bound around the shaft immediately below the notched end, while there are marks left on the surface from a similar binding around the flat part of the opposite end. The bow string has been tied around the lower shaft, at the point where the section changes from circular to rectangular, and wound several times around the body, before being stretched up to fit over the pegged top of the bow using a loop, tied off below. A small piece of reptile skin has become caught in the string at this point. The bow is nearly complete, missing some of its binding; the string has a frayed end, and is no longer taut. It has a weight of 614.9 grams. The shaft L = 1857, diam at centre shaft = 26.5 x 25.5, diam below notched end = 16 x 7.5, W at peg end = 9.5, Th= 9, String diam = 2.5, Strung L = 1520, binding strip W = 3, bound L = 60 mm [RTS 28/9/2005].
Geographical reference: Sudan, Republic of
Africa > Northern Africa > Sudan, Republic of; Blue Nile Darfung
Cultural groups: Burun
Person: Field collector L. Gorringe; PRM source Mrs L. Gorringe
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1912
Date collected: 1902 - 1912
Acquisition information: Donated: 1944
Materials and processes: Material Bamboo Plant, Material Sinew, Material Reptile Skin, Process Carved, Process Notched, Process Stained, Process Twisted, Process Bound, Process Tied, Process Strung
Dimensions: Width: max 67 mm, Depth: max 28 mm, Length: max 1848 mm, Weight 614.9 g
Object numbers: Accession number: 1944.10.28
Research and responses: Dar Fung seems to be the same as Darfung, in the Roseires Dam region of the Blue Nile administrative district (see http://www.calle.com/world/sudan/Da.html). Gorringe collected a series of similar bows; see also 1944.10.29-33; for a group of Burun arrows, see 1944.10.34-71.
RDF 1944.10.28-33 contains a typewritten report, headed 'Report on the chemical composition of a piece of fibre submitted by B.W.T', signed 'J.r. Baker, 24 Nov. 1944'. This has been annotated in another hand: '(Vol. XI). prob. relating to 1944.10.28-33' [RTS 28/9/2005].
It seems there was originally a joint donor of both the Lightbody and Gorringe collections. There is no information in the accession book as to who this may have been. See Additional Accession Book Entry for 1944.10.17 for relevant text regarding this. [MR 10/7/2000].
Gaam, a language (also called Ingassana or Tabi) is found in the eastern Sudan near Lake Ar-Rusayris. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Online [MR 7/7/2000].

Search terms: Archery Weapon, Hunting, Bow, Weapon, Hunting accessory