Roulette for decorated pottery, made from plaited and twisted grass strips [RTS 1/6/2004]

Collection type: Object
Description: Roulette for decorated pottery, made from plaited and twisted grass strips [RTS 1/6/2004]
Long description: Roulette for decorating pottery, made from two narrow strips of grass fibre, 6.3 mm wide, put together to make a double thickness, doubled over and then plaited loosely together from the top down to form a concertina-like box chain. This method of production creates several twists down the length of the body. The ends are roughly tied together at the bottom, and have begun to fray at the edges. The roulette is complete, with some minor cracking along the surface of the grass, and currently a pale yellow colour (Pantone 7402C). It is 150 mm long, 6.3 to 6.5 mm wide, and 7 mm thick, with a weight of 1.2 grams [RTS 1/6/2004].
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: Between 27 January and 5 February 1979
Acquisition information: Purchased: 1979
Materials and processes: Material Grass Fibre Plant, Process Plaited, Process Twisted
Dimensions: Length 150 mm, Width 6.3 mm strips, Depth 7 mm, Weight 1.2 g
Object numbers: Accession number: 1979.20.28 Other numbers: Langton Collection 305B
Research and responses: The place and date of collection is not noted, but judging by other objects with this information, the expedition was collecting Moru material from Lui and Lanyi between 27/1/1979 and 5/2/1979.
For a photograph showing a Moru pottery using a roulette to apply decoration to a pottery vessel, see Barley, N., 1994, Smashing Pots, p. 36 top (photograph by John Mack). For a similar grass roulette, used by the northern Larim, see 1979.20.149. Different styles of grass roulette are also found in the collection; plaited grass strings (1979.20.125-6, from the Dinka Tuich), and string wrapped around sticks (1949.20.27, Moru Misa) [RTS 12/1/2004].
Associated publications: Illustrated in black and white as Figure 3 on page 130 of 'Culture and Technology in the Pottery of the Medieval Sahel: A Preliminary View from the Makarauci Valley, Niger', by Anne Haour and Ruth Galpine, in Journal of African Archaeology, Vol. III, no. 1 (2005), pp. 127-37. Haour and Galpine illustrate the piece as an example of a generic 'pleated strip roulette'. [JC 27 10 2005] Referred to on pages 170 of 'Folded Strip Roulette / Roulette de fibre plate pliée', by Anne Haour and Daouda Keita, in African Pottery Roulettes Past and Present: Techniques, Identification and Distribution, edited by A. Haour et al. (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2010), pp. 169-76. Referred to as an example of a folded strip roulette that has appeared in the literature (referring to its publication in 2005 by Haour Galpine (see reference above)). [JC 19 11 2010]

Search terms: Tool, Pottery, Potter's Tool