Possibly poisoned arrow with triangular iron blade on double barbed, hide-bound tang, set into a wooden shaft with copper and fibre binding and nocked end [RTS 23/5/2005].

Collection type: Object
Description: Possibly poisoned arrow with triangular iron blade on double barbed, hide-bound tang, set into a wooden shaft with copper and fibre binding and nocked end [RTS 23/5/2005].
Long description: Arrow consisting of an iron arrowhead with a short triangular blade, thickened down the middle on both sides and with shoulders extending to form 2 sharp barbs, one of which has broken off at its base. This has a long tang with rectangular section and a barb on either side. The lower part of the tang has been bound in strips of plant fibre, while the rest of its length has been bound in a narrow strip of thicker reptile skin; both appear to be coated in a dark brown material (Pantone black 4C). The arrowhead has been fitted into the socketed top of the shaft, carved from a lightweight yellow wood (Pantone 7510) with slightly oval section. This has been smoothed across the surface, and bound round with strips of plant fibre at the top of the shaft, with a copper strip just below, and then a second group of plant fibre strips just above the butt, which has been nocked, with 2 notches cut into opposite sides. These bound areas appear to have been smeared with a reddish brown material (Pantone 4695C), possibly resinous and intended as a fixative. The arrow is nearly complete, but is missing the base of one barb. It has a weight of 41.9 grams and a total length of 801 mm. The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 162 mm, with the blade being 45 mm long, 19 mm wide across its shoulders and 2.6 mm thick at the centre, and the tang having a width of 6 mm and thickness of 4.3 mm. The shaft is 639 mm long, with a body diameter of 9.5 mm and a nock length of 10 mm; the upper binding of the shaft is 33 mm long, the copper binding 12 mm long, of 3 mm wide strips, and the lower binding is 32 mm long [RTS 23/5/2005].
Geographical reference: Sudan, Republic of
Africa > Northern Africa > Sudan, Republic of
Cultural groups: Moru
Person: Field collector Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard; PRM source Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1930
Date collected: By 1930
Acquisition information: Purchased: 31/12/1930
Materials and processes: Material Wood Plant, Material Plant Fibre, Material Reptile Skin, Material Copper Metal, Material Iron Metal, Material Poison, Material Resin Plant, Process Forged (Metal), Process Hammered, Process Carved, Process Socketed, Process Notched, Process Bound
Dimensions: Length: max 801 mm, Diameter 9.5 mm shaft, Width: max 19 mm, Length 45 mm blade, Length 639 mm shaft, Length 162 mm arrowhead, Weight 41.9 g
Object numbers: Accession number: 1930.86.19.6
Research and responses: The arrowheads in this group share a number of features, including the type of wood; the butt nocking, the use of fibre binding around areas vulnerable to splitting on use (butt and where point is hafted in place) and with some kind of red adhesive coating, and the presence of binding at the base of the tang, probably to prevent impact forcing the arrowhead too deeply into the shaft socket.
The material coating the hide strips around the tang may be poisonous; Schweinfurth noted the use of similar bast binding on Bongo arrowheads as a way of fixing poison, in that instance, 'milkjuice of the Euphorbia venefica' (G. Schweinfurth, 1875, Artes Africanae, pl. VII figure 16.
Powell-Cotton also collected a number of Moru archer's items, including a bow (kusu), arrow (atu) and hide ring for drawing back the bow string (driba) - see 1934.8.33-35.
RDF 1930.86 contains a letter from Evans-Pritchard to Mr. Malcolm dated 12 December 1930, offering him some 81 Zande and Nuer objects. As Malcolm was curator of the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, it seems unlikely that these objects were ever sent to the Pitt Rivers Museum and this letter is only useful as background for Evans-Pritchard's attritudes to the intended future use of his material, and as evidence for the temporary storage of these objects in Professor Seligman's office in the London School of Economics at the time. The file also contains an undated list of 48 objects, which does not seem to match accessioned material and could be the list of rejected items that Balfour mentions in another letter on file, dated 31 December 1930 [RTS 7/7/2005].

Search terms: Archery Weapon, Hunting, Arrow, Arrow-head, Arrow Shaft, Weapon