1979.20.197

Collection type

Object

Description

Light yellow wooden spoon with long pierced handle and shallow bowl, tied to 1979.20.195-6 by hide thongs [RTS 21/6/2004].

Long description

Spoon carved from a single piece of yellow wood (Pantone 7407C), with the top cut slightly convex and sloping, and the handle long and irregularly shaped with several indentations and dips along the surface due to flaws in the original piece of wood. The handle is ovoid in plan view, and has been pierced just below the top with a circular hole, blackened around the edges and inside; this was probably burnt through using a heated tool. At the other end, the handle is flattened on top where it joins onto a shallow bowl with thin rim, concave interior hollow and convex underside. This is lentoid in plan view, and is pointed at either end. On its underside, the handle continues along the base of the bowl as a tapering, narrow raised rib that extends to the tip of the bowl, presumably to strengthen the place where these two elements join. A narrow strip of hide has been threaded through the suspension hole at the top of the handle, bent into a loop and then split at either end, with the split ends plaited together to form a projecting tab that serves to keep the loop fastened and secure. A long, narrow yellow hide strip with traces of light buff coloured animal hair has been passed twice through this loop and two others that have spoons 1979.20.195-6 attached, before being knotted off, leaving one short and one long end trailing. The group as a whole weighs 194.9 grams. This spoon is complete and intact, and the surface has been polished. It has a length of 344 mm; the handle measures 14.5 mm by 11 mm at its end, and 15.7 by 15 mm at its centre; the hole has a diameter of 4 mm; the spoon bowl is 89 mm long, 61 mm wide, 22 mm high and 13.8 mm deep, while the hide loop through the handle hole is 4 mm wide and 2 mm thick [RTS 21/6/2004].

Geographical reference

South Sudan

Africa > Eastern Africa > South Sudan

Cultural groups

Toposa

Person

Field collector John Mack

PRM source Patti Langton

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1980

Date collected

1980

Acquisition information

Purchased: 1979

Materials and processes

Material Wood Plant, Material Animal Hide Skin, Process Carved, Process Polished, Process Perforated, Process Plaited, Process Tied

Dimensions

Length 344 mm, Length 89 mm bowl, Width 61 mm bowl, Depth 22 mm bowl, Width: max 15.7 mm handle, Weight 194.9 g 3 spoons tied together

Object numbers

Accession number: 1979.20.197

Research and responses

The collector did not record any further information on how this type of spoon was used, or the name that it was known by locally. Among other Nilotic cultures such as the Larim, they were used for eating (see 1979.20.151-152). For general discussions of the Toposa, see the article by Captain G.R. King in L.F. Nalder (ed.), 1937, A Tribal Survey of the Mongalla Province, pp 65-81 and A.C. Beaton, 1950, "Record of the Toposa Tribe", Sudan Notes and Records XXXI.

This object is tied to spoons 1979.20.195-6 by a hide thong; all three spoons are of similar type [RTS 21/6/2004].

Search terms: Food and Drink, Spoon, Food Accessory