1930.86.19.11

Collection type

Object

Description

Arrow with narrow barbed iron point set into a wooden shaft with bound and nocked end [RTS 24/5/2005].

Long description

Arrow consisting of an iron arrowhead with narrow elongated body tapering out from a pointed tip to form a square sectioned body, with a series of oblique cuts chiselled into opposite sides to create numerous downward pointing barbs. These stop a short way above the base, where the body has been partially bound with plant fibre strips, then becomes circular in section. This tang has been fitted into the top of a wooden shaft, carved from a lightweight yellow material (Pantone 730C) and slightly oval in section. The surface of this shaft has been smoothed, and then bound round with fibre strips to prevent it splitting, with a band at the top of the shaft, and then again just above the nocked butt, which has 2 notches cut into opposite sides. The binding around the tang has been smeared with a dark, greasy material; the binding around the shaft is a dark reddish brown colour (Pantone 4625C), which also stains the wood beneath, particularly on the lower part of the shaft. This may represent some kind of fixative. The arrow is complete and intact, but has no flights. It has a weight of 36.1 grams and a total length of 796 mm. The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 174 mm, a maximum width of 8 mm and thickness of 4.5 mm, while the tang has a diameter of 4.2 mm. The wooden shaft is 622 mm long, with a diameter of 9 by 8.8 mm and a nock length of 10 mm; the binding around the lower tang is 9 mm long, the upper binding of the shaft is 35 mm and the lower binding is 26 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 Iron Metal, Material Wood Plant, Material Plant Fibre, Material Pigment, Process Forged (Metal), Process Hammered, Process Carved, Process Socketed, Process Notched, Process Bound

Dimensions

Length: max 796 mm, Width: max 8 mm arrowhead, Diameter: max 9 mm shaft, Length: max 174 mm arrowhead, Length: max 622 mm shaft, Weight 36.1 g

Object numbers

Accession number: 1930.86.19.11

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.

This object was collected by Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard in the Southern Sudan sometime before December 1930, as part of a group of 12 arrows; for the other examples, see 1930.86.19.1 (wooden arrowhead), and 1930.86.19.2-12 (iron arrowheads). 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. For a similar type of barbing applied to the heads of larger fishing spears, see 1936.10.6 (Nuer), 1942.8.61 (unattributed), 1961.9.8 (Shilluk) and 1979.20.109 (Dinka Tuich).

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