1979.20.17

Collection type

Object

Description

Arrow with narrow incised and perforated ebony point on a wooden shaft with bound and nocked butt [RTS 3/6/2005].

Long description

Arrow consisting of a dark brown ebony arrowhead (Pantone black 4C) with pointed tip and narrow body that tapers out gradually towards the tang. This has been decorated with a series of short oblique incised lines, covering the entire surface; there is also a circular hole piercing the lower part of the arrowhead, perhaps for attaching a decorative device. It has been fitted into the socketed top of a lightweight wooden shaft. This is a yellow colour (Pantone 7401C), and has a slightly irregular surface. Narrow strips of plant fibre have been bound around the junction of tang and shaft, and again just above the nocked butt, which has 2 rectangular notches cut into opposite sides. Both areas appear to have been smeared with a reddish material, possible a resin to act as a fixative (Pantone 4625C); this has stained some of the wood below. The arrow is nearly complete, but missing the very tip of the arrowhead and with minor cracks just below, and at the very top of the shaft, beneath the binding. The decoration has worn off the arrowhead in several places, with further wear around the sides of the hole. It has a weight of 29.8 grams and a total length of 863 mm. The visible area of the arrowhead has a length of 362 mm and a diameter of 9.7 mm, while the wooden shaft is 501 mm long, with a diameter of 8.3 mm and a nock length of 10 mm; the binding is 35 mm long around the upper part, and 15 mm long around the lower end [RTS 3/6/2005].

Geographical reference

South Sudan

Africa > Eastern Africa > South Sudan

Western Equatoria Lui Lanyi

Cultural groups

Moru Misa

Person

Field collector Patti Langton

PRM source Patti Langton

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1979

Date collected

5 February 1979

Acquisition information

Purchased: 1979

Materials and processes

Material Wood Plant, Material Plant Fibre, Material Resin Plant, Material Pigment, Process Carved, Process Notched, Process Socketed, Process Bound, Process Decorated, Process Incised, Process Perforated

Dimensions

Length: max 863 mm, Length 362 mm arrowhead, Diameter 9.7 mm arrowhead, Length 501 mm shaft, Diameter 8.3 mm shaft, Weight 29.8 g

Object numbers

Accession number: 1979.20.17 Other numbers: Langton Collection 64

Research and responses

For a similar Moro arrow, collected by Evans-Pritchard, see 1930.86.19.1. The Burun also use this type: see 1944.10.41, which combines a notched ebony point with a segmented cane shaft, binding the two together with hide strips rather than the plant fibre seen here.

The Moru also make arrows with iron points; see 1936.86.18.2-15, 1936.86.19.2-12. 1979.20.18-21 for examples; Powell-Cotton records the name of this type of arrow as atu. For a Moru quiver, see 1936.86.18.1; for a Moru bow, called kusu, see 1934.8.32; for a Moru archer's ring, used to draw back the bowstring, see 1934.8.34; this is known as a driba. [RTS 3/6/2005].

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