Throwing knife with barbed tang and triangular blade at top [RTS 9/3/2004].

Collection type: Object
Description: Throwing knife with barbed tang and triangular blade at top [RTS 9/3/2004].
Long description: Iron throwing knife with a narrow rectangular plate tang, cut with a straight end with two short notches in it, and featuring a series of short barbs running down either side, formed by hitting the metal along the edges with a tool such as a chisel in a series of short blows. These barbs are on the upper surface on one side of the tang, and on the lower surface of the opposite edge. They were probably designed to help keep a handle binding in place, although no binding is now present. This may have been lost at some time before the object came into the Pitt Rivers Museum collection; alternatively, this object may have been purchased in an unfinished state. The barbs run up the tang as far as the junction of body and lower, angled blade. The central stem continues above this, and has a triangular section with thick back and sharpened cutting edge opposite; the surface of this blade is bevelled on either side. The back of this stem is slightly convex. Three blades are angled away from the central stem and were probably separate pieces that have been forged onto the main body section. The lowest of these projects at an acute angle from the body just above the barbed tang. It has very slightly concave sides, that become convex before tapering in to the point. The outer edge thickens at its base, where there is a sharp angle, that turns back to the body and has not been sharpened; many other examples have a projecting spur at this point. A second blade projects at right angles from the end of the stem on the opposite side. This has one nearly straight edge, a pointed tip, then a convex edge opposite that tapers back in to the junction with the third blade, which has a broad triangular base or tang projecting out from the top of the central stem, narrowing to a broad based, flat shouldered triangular body with rounded tip. The edges of all three blades have been hammered to form a broad bevel on upper and lower surfaces, leading down to a sharp cutting edge. The underside of the knife is otherwise flat, with a slight raised area at the junction of triangular top blade and its base - the result of tongue welding. The object is complete and intact, with no obvious nicks in the cutting edges to suggest that this knife had seen much use. The iron is a silvery gray colour (Pantone 420C to 421C). Length 427 mm, width of handle 23.3 mm, thickness of handle 1.4 mm, width of central stem 30 mm, thickness of central stem 3.5 mm; length of lower blade 149 mm, width of lower blade 34.3 mm; length of second blade 218 mm, width of second blade 54 mm; length of third blade 120 mm; width across shoulders of third blade 93.5 mm; thickness at cutting edge 0.2 mm [RTS 9/3/2004].
Geographical reference: South Sudan
Africa > Eastern Africa > South Sudan; Congo, Democratic Republic of
Africa > Central Africa > Congo, Democratic Republic of; [White Nile]
Cultural groups: Zande
Person: Maker Unknown Maker; Field collector John Petherick; PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1858?, uncertain
Date collected: ?1858
Acquisition information: Donated: 1884
Materials and processes: Material Iron Metal, Process Hammered
Dimensions: Length 427 mm, Width 23.3 mm handle, Depth 1.4 mm handle
Object numbers: Accession number: 1884.25.2 PR Cat other PR nos: 185
Research and responses: Petherick lived in Khartoum from 1853-1858, mounting several trading expeditions into the Sudanese interior during this period. He entered Zande territory for the first time on 24th February 1858, while on his fifth such expedition, visiting the villages of Mundo, Kangamboo and Baranj. If Zande, this object was probably collected during this trip, as Petherick did not venture into this region again. His collection was shipped back to England in 1859. This item was subsequently obtained by Pitt Rivers and displayed in Bethnal Green and South Kensington Museums (V&A).
This object represents the southern type of throwing knife, which is found in northern Gabon, and from eastern Cameroon almost to the White Nile; it was used by the Zande and by groups who fell under their influence, including the Adio, Bongo and Kreish. This specific variety, which corresponds to Westerdijk's type SP VII.1, is found in the regions inhabited by the latter three groups (P. Westerdijk 1988, The African Throwing Knife, p. 189-90). The knives could be hung from a disc on the back of the shield (C. Spring, African Arms and Armour, pp 69-70; 79-80). In Petherick's discussions of the Zande, whom he encountered in 1858, they were described as carrying two or three throwing knives at a time in this way; he gives the Zande term for this weapon (a 'trombash') as gangoo (Petherick 1861, Egypt, the Sudan and Central Africa, p. 469, p. 481). He also describes their use: 'The iron weapon, when employed, is thrown with great force, and in such a manner as to revolve upon its centre when spinning through the air' (J. Petherick, 1861, 'On the arms of the Arab and Negro Tribes of Central Africa bordering on the White Nile', Journal of the Royal United Services Institution IV no. 13, p. 176).
At the time this object was collected 'White Nile' was used in a very generic way to refer to the Bahr el Abiad and Bahr el Jebel rivers or the areas around them. Association with the Zande and Westerdijk's study of the distribution of this type suggests that it was probably collected somewhere in the districts of Warab or Western Bahr el Ghazal [RTS 19/2/2004].

Search terms: Weapon, Throwing Knife