- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Carved arrow with notched and incised ebony point on a decorated cane shaft with bound and nocked end [RTS 4/7/2005]
- Long description
- Arrow consisting of a dark brown ebony arrowhead (Pantone black 4C), with a narrow, elongated body that tapers out slightly along its length before narrowing again at its base. The upper body has been decorated with 4 pairs of deep notches, running in 2 aligned rows down the sides. There are clear shaving marks down the rest of the body, the base of which has been fitted into the socketed top of a cane shaft with a slightly oval sectioned body made up of 6 segments along its length. The shaft ranges in colour from orangey brown to a deep reddish brown (Pantone 497C), and may have been stained. The junction of tang and shaft is obscured by binding, made from a narrow strip of grayish brown animal hide that was intended to prevent the wood splitting on impact (Pantone 7531C). There is similar binding around the shaft just above its nocked butt, which has 2 deep rectangular notches cut into either side. The arrow is essentially complete, but the upper binding was loose and has now been fixed, while the shaft has split along its length just below its junction with the arrowhead, while the tip of the arrowhead may have been damaged. It has a weight of 40.1 grams and a total length of 1061 mm. The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 303 mm and a diameter of 9.3 mm, while the wooden shaft is 758 mm long, with a diameter of 9.7 by 9.3 mm and a nock length of 11 mm; the binding is 25 mm long around the upper part, and 22 mm long around the lower end [RTS 5/7/2005].
- Geographical reference
- Blue Nile Darfung
- Cultural groups
- Burun
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1917
- Date collected
- 1902 - 1912
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1944
- Materials and processes
- Material Cane Plant, Material Ebony Wood Plant, Material Animal Hide Skin, Process Carved, Process Notched, Process Bound, Process Incised, Process Decorated, Process Socketed
- Dimensions
- Length: max 1061 mm, Length: max 758 mm shaft, Diameter: max 9.3 mm arrowhead, Diameter: max 9.7 mm shaft, Length: max 303 mm arrowhead, Weight 40.1 g
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1944.10.67
- 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). The binding material appears to be animal hide, rather than membrane [RTS 26/5/2005].
Search terms: Archery Weapon, Hunting, Arrow, Arrow-head, Arrow Shaft, Weapon