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1930.86.19.7

Arrow with short triangular iron blade on multi-barbed tang, set into a wooden shaft with bound and nocked end [RTS 23/5/2005].

1930.86.19.7

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Collection type
Object
Description
Arrow with short triangular iron blade on multi-barbed tang, set into a wooden shaft with bound and nocked end [RTS 23/5/2005].
Long description
Arrow consisting of an iron arrowhead with a short triangular blade, thickened down the centre on both sides and extending at the base of the shoulders to form sharp points, one of which is much longer than the other. This is set on a long tang, initially round in section but quickly becoming square sectioned. 3 long barbs alternate from either side, while the tang body has been chiselled down opposite sides to form 2 additional rows of short downward pointing barbs. The lower part of the tang has been bound with strips of plant fibre. This has been fitted into the socketed top of a shaft, carved from a lightweight yellow wood (Pantone 7509C) with slightly oval section, smoothed across the surface and bound round with further fibre strips, at the top of the shaft, and just above the butt, which has been nocked with 2 notches cut into opposite sides. There is a dark reddish brown material covering the bound areas and staining the wood around them (Pantone 476C), possibly as a fixative. The arrow is complete, but the fibre binding is fraying at the ends, and there is a deep scratch in the surface of the shaft near its top. It has a weight of 32.8 grams and a total length of 819 mm. The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 119 mm, with the blade being 28 mm long, 14 mm wide across its shoulders and 2.2 mm thick at the centre, and the tang having a width of 6.2 mm and thickness of 3.5 mm. The shaft is 700 mm long, with a body diameter of 9.2 mm and a nock length of 8 mm; the binding around the lower tang is 7 mm long, the upper binding of the shaft is 29 mm long, and the lower binding is 21 mm long [RTS 23/5/2005].
Cultural groups
Moru
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1930
Date collected
By 1930
Acquisition information
Purchased: 31/12/1930
Materials and processes
Material Iron Metal, Material Wood Plant, Material Plant Fibre, Material Resin Plant, Process Forged (Metal), Process Hammered, Process Carved, Process Socketed, Process Notched, Process Bound
Dimensions
Length 700 mm shaft, Width: max 14 mm, Length 28 mm blade, Length 119 mm arrowhead, Length: max 819 mm, Diameter 9.2 mm shaft, Weight 32.8 g
Object numbers
Accession number: 1930.86.19.7
Research and responses

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.

The short chiselled barbs on this object are similar to those seen on other weapon and tool types, such as the Nuer fighting bracelet (e.g. 1931.66.34), or fishing spears of the Nuer and Shilluk (e.g.: 1936.10.6 and 1961.9.8).

The arrowheads in this group (1930.86.19) 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.

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. [RTS 23/5/2005].

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