1979.20.3

Collection type

Object

Description

Cooking vessel in the form of a deep, hemispherical bowl with a rouletted or matt impressed exterior [RTS 1/4/2005].

Long description

Pottery cooking vessel, hand made from a moderately well levigated reddish brown fabric (Pantone 4645C), soft fired mottled red and black across the surface. It is circular in plan view and has a slightly inturned, narrow flat topped rim, on a deep hemispherical body with convex sides sloping down to a convex base. The exterior has been covered with a textured pattern, probably made using a roulette to impress a series of lentoid or rectangular marks. These have been applied horizontally just below the rim - with a narrow reserve strip left at the very top - but become angled and more random below this. The vessel is complete, with a small crack at the rim and some minor chips from the rim; there are also a few hairline cracks across the body. The interior is stained, suggesting that it had seen some use. It has a weight of 956.5 grams. The rim measures 182 by 185 mm across its external diameter, and is 5 mm wide; the vessel has a maximum width of 200 mm, and is 143 mm high [RTS 1/4/2005].

Geographical reference

South Sudan

Africa > Eastern Africa > South Sudan

Western Equatoria Lui

Cultural groups

Moru Misa

Person

Maker Naomi Tudrinwa

Field collector Patti Langton

PRM source Patti Langton

Date / Period

Date made: 01/1979?, uncertain

Date collected

27 January 1979

Acquisition information

Purchased: 1979

Materials and processes

Material Pottery, Process Handbuilt, Process Fire-Hardened, Process Impressed

Dimensions

Height 143 mm, Diameter: max 200 mm, Diameter: max 185 mm rim, Weight 956.5 g

Object numbers

Accession number: 1979.20.3 Other numbers: Langton Collection 6

Research and responses

For a photograph showing a female Moru potter using a roulette to apply decoration to a pottery vessel, see Barley, N., 1994, Smashing Pots, p. 36 top (photograph by John Mack; this similarly covers large parts of the vessel surface). Different styles of grass roulette may be found in the Pitt Rivers Museum collection; plaited grass strings (1979.20.28, Moru Misa; 1979.20.125-6, from the Dinka Tuich), and string wrapped around sticks (1949.20.27, Moru Misa) [RTS 12/1/2004].

Search terms: Vessel, Food and Drink, Pottery, Cooking Vessel, Bowl, Food Accessory