1930.86.19.12

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 consisiting of an iron arrowhead with pointed tip and narrow, elongated body that tapers out slightly to its base. This has a square section for much of its length, and has a series of oblique cuts chiselled down each edge; around halfway down the body, these are replaced on opposite sides by larger barbs - with four on one side, and five on the other. The chiselwork then continues a short distance, before the shaft becomes more circular in section, and is bound round with strips of plant fibre. This has been fitted into the top of a wooden shaft, carved from a lightweight yellow material (Pantone 7510C) and slightly oval in section. The surface of the shaft has been smoothed, and it has been bound round with fibre strips to prevent it splitting, with a band at the top of the shaft, and then again at its base, just above the nocked butt which has 2 broad notches cut into opposite sides. The binding has been stained a reddish brown colour (Pantone 4625), with the stain spreading to cover the wood below, and possibly representing some kind of fixative; this is quite thick on the lower part of the shaft and extends some way along it. The arrow is nearly complete, but has some damage; one barb has broken off from the head, a small fragment has broken away from the top of the shaft, and there is a cut in the surface of the wood below this, along with some damage to the edge of the butt. It has no flights. The arrow weighs 32.9 grams and has a total length of 892 mm. The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 185 mm, a maximum width of 7.3 mm (including barbs) and thickness of 4.8 mm, while the wooden shaft is 707 mm long, with a diameter of 9.2 by 8.8 mm and a nock length of 10 mm; the binding around the lower tang is 12 mm long, the upper binding of the shaft is 25 mm and the lower binding is 25 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 892 mm, Length: max 185 mm arrowhead, Length: max 707 mm shaft, Diameter: max 9.2 mm shaft, Width: max 7.3 mm arrowhead, Weight 32.9 g

Object numbers

Accession number: 1930.86.19.12

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.

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