1884.140.585

Collection type

Object

Description

Cylindrical wooden lip stud with conical top bearing bands of incised crosshatching [RTS 11/5/2004].

Long description

Small lip stud carved from a single piece of wood, and consisting of a conical top with slightly pointed apex, offset from a squat, straight sided cylindrical body that flares out to a slightly convex underside with oval plan view. The upper surface is decorated with four oblique bands, made up of incised crosshatching; these meet at the centre of the top. Four blank triangular areas have been left between the bands, near the outer edge; these appear to have been deliberately blackened for decorative effect (see the comment in J.G. Wood, The Natural History of Man Volume I, p. 499). The stud is complete and intact, and currently a dark reddish brown colour (Pantone 4975C) with tool marks visible on some surfaces. The underside may have been polished. It has a length of 19.8 mm, a width of 18.8 mm, is 22.5 mm high and weighs 4.6 grams [RTS 12/5/2004].

Geographical reference

South Sudan

Africa > Eastern Africa > South Sudan

Cultural groups

Bongo

Person

Maker Unknown Maker

Field collector John Petherick

PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection

Date / Period

Date made: Possibly before 1858

Date collected

1856 - 1858

Acquisition information

Donated: 1884 Found unentered: 10/05/2004

Materials and processes

Material Wood Plant, Process Carved, Process Incised, Process Burnt, Process Polished, Process Decorated

Dimensions

Height 22.5 mm, Width 18.8 mm, Length 19.8 mm, Weight 4.6 g

Object numbers

Accession number: 1884.140.585

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. This was later displayed in the Bethnal Green and South Kensington Museums (V&A) [AP; RTS 20/1/2004].

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'. 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.

Note that the Collectors Misc. XI book entry had incorrectly attributed 1884.84.85 to the group of 8 Bongo lip studs described as part of the entry for Black 1611, whereas that object came to the museum through a different route, via J.G. Wood's collection [RTS 11/5/2004].

Search terms: Ornament, Lip Ornament, Body Art Accessory