Skip to content
Pitt Rivers Museum
AboutHire the MuseumNewsletterUniversity of Oxford

1884.84.86

Cylindrical wooden lip stud with hatched, conical top, worn by women in their lower lip [RTS 10/5/2004].

1884.84.86

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Terms and Conditions

If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.

Collection type
Object
Description
Cylindrical wooden lip stud with hatched, conical top, worn by women in their lower lip [RTS 10/5/2004].
Long description
Small lip stud carved from a single piece of wood, consisting of a conical top with pointed apex, offset from a cylindrical body with sides flaring out towareds an uneven, slightly convex base that is slightly oval in plan view. The upper surface, which would have been the most visible, has been decorated with four triangular groups of oblique hatching, each running in opposing direction to its neighbour and dividing the area into four parts. Two of these triangular areas directly opposite each other have been blackened for decorative effect. The stud is complete and intact, with very clear tool marks visible on most surfaces. The wood ranges from a mid yellowish brown (Pantone 730C) to a stronger reddish brown, most marked at the centre of the underside where the area has been polished (Pantone 476C). The object has a length of 22.3 mm, is 22 mm wide, 24 mm high and weighs 6.5 grams [RTS 11/5/2004].
Geographical reference
South Sudan
Africa > Eastern Africa > South Sudan
Cultural groups
Bongo
Date / Period
Date made: Possibly before 1858
Date collected
1856 - 1858
Acquisition information
Donated: 1884
Materials and processes
Material Wood Plant, Process Carved, Process Incised, Process Burnt, Process Polished, Process Decorated
Dimensions
Length 22.3 mm, Width 22 mm, Height 24 mm, Weight 6.5 g
Object numbers
Accession number: 1884.84.86
Research and responses

John Petherick led three separate trading expeditions that passed through Bongo territory between 1856 and 1858; this material was shipped back to England in 1859. See Petherick 1861, Egypt, The Sudan and Central Africa for more details.

Bongo lip ornaments are described by Petherick in his 1861 volume, Egypt, The Sudan and Central Africa, p. 401 ‘the women would be handsome were it not for a disfiguration of the under lip, in which circular pieces of wood are inserted, varying in size according to age from a sixpence to a florin'. Wood discusses this type of object, and mentions that the decorated surface was burnt deliberately for effect: '... the conical top ... is carved very neatly with ... a pattern, the effect of which is heightened by the charring of certain portions of it, the blackened and polished surfaces contrasting well with the deep red colour of the wood' (J.G. Wood, 1868, The Natural History of Man Vol. I, p. 499). See also G. Schweinfurth's description, In The Heart of Africa Volume I, 1873, pp 296-298. By the time that Evans-Pritchard encountered the Bongo, in the 1920's, the use of large pegs in the lower lips seemed to have gone out of fashion, although they were reportedly still used by the Löli Jurs and the Dogodjo tribe (E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1929, "The Bongo", Sudan Notes and Records XII part I, p. 10. [RTS 4/7/2005].

Search terms: Ornament, Lip Ornament, Body Art Accessory

Further items to explore