Arrow with narrow iron leaf-shaped head on a barbed tang, and segmented cane shaft with bound and nocked end [RTS 6/6/2005].

Collection type: Object
Description: Arrow with narrow iron leaf-shaped head on a barbed tang, and segmented cane shaft with bound and nocked end [RTS 6/6/2005].
Long description: Arrow consisting of an iron arrowhead with a blunt-ended narrow, leaf-shaped blade and rounded shoulders. The blade has an ogee-shaped section, and an elongated square sectioned tang. This has been chiselled down its opposite sides and faces to create 2 pairs of downward pointing barbs, with the surface above, between and below each barb roughened with groups of shallower cuts. The tang joins onto a wooden shaft, but the junction has been obscured by a thick layer of fibre binding, heavily smeared with a reddish brown resinous material, probably as a fixative (Pantone 4695C). The shaft has been cut from a length of yellow cane (Pantone 7509C), probably with parts of 4 segments preserved. The base has a shallow nock cut across the face, immediately below a joint in the wood, while the shaft above this has also been bound round with red stained fibre. The arrow is complete and intact, with traces of rust on the iron surface. It has a weight of 54.9 grams and a total length of 765 mm. The section of the arrowhead visible above the shaft has a length of 160 mm, with the blade being 71 mm long, 14 mm wide across its shoulders and 2.2 mm thick at the centre, and the tang having a width of 5 mm and thickness of 5 mm. The shaft is around 605 mm long, with a body diameter of 10.3 by 10 mm and a nock length of 2 mm; the upper binding is 67 mm long, and the lower binding is 45 mm long [RTS 6/6/2005]
Geographical reference: South Sudan
Africa > Eastern Africa > South Sudan; Bahr el Jebel Limbe
Cultural groups: Lugbara
Person: Maker Lugbara blacksmith; Field collector Lutaya Expedition; PRM source Lutaya Expedition; PRM source Barbara Elaine Harrell-Bond
Date / Period: Date made: 1984?, uncertain
Date collected: July to September 1984
Acquisition information: Purchased: 1985
Materials and processes: Material Iron Metal, Material Cane Plant, Material Plant Fibre, Material Resin Plant, Material Pigment, Process Forged (Metal), Process Hammered, Process Carved, Process Notched, Process Bound, Process Recycled
Dimensions: Diameter: max 10.3 mm shaft, Width: max 14 mm blade, Length: max 765 mm, Length: max 160 mm arrowhead, Length: max 71 mm blade, Length: max 605 mm shaft, Weight 54.9 g
Object numbers: Accession number: 1985.24.7
Research and responses: A province known as 'Equatoria' or 'Al Istiwa'iyah' was in existance from some time in the 1940's to 1981, after which point it was divided into the districts of Eastern and Western Equatoria; in the 1990's these were subdivided further into the modern administrative districts of Western Equatoria, Bahr el Jebel, and Eastern Equatoria; Yei is in the Bahr el Jebel district, but the Yei River also runs through part of Western Equatoria. Limbe is located in the district of Bahr el Jebel. The Lugbara are to be found in northwestern Uganda, the adjoining area of the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the west Nile district. They relate culturally and linguistically to the Madi.
For a similar arrow, see 1985.24.8; another example is published by Trowell and Wachsmann, and attributed to the Acholi Lugbara (Tribal Crafts of Uganda, 1953, p. 249, pl. 65C) [RTS 6/6/2005].

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