1934.8.14

Collection type

Object

Description

Iron cattle bell with suspension loop at top [RTS 7/12/2004].

Long description

Iron bell made from 4 separate parts. These consist of a body formed from a rectangular sheet of iron, folded over double, and the long sides heated and hammered together. The top and sides have been flattened, but the central part of the body forced open, creating an an almost cylindrical hollow interior that is lentoid in section and that widens as the bell body splays out towards its mouth. The upper part of the body has been pierced for a suspension loop, with holes in the shape of an inverted key-hole, distorted around their lower parts. A large ring has been fitted through these holes in the form of an iron rod, bent into a loop with overlapping ends. A smaller but similar loop hangs down from this, inside the body, to which the clapper has been attached. This is made from a thicker iron rod, round in section, that tapers towards the top, where it has been bent over the smaller ring, and then doubled over to run alongside the body, closing the loop and preventing it from slipping off. This clapper extends to just inside the lip of the bell mouth, and has a flat underside. The object is complete and intact, but has some surface rust making it currently a reddish brown to gray colour (Pantone black 4C). It has a total length of 190 mm; the bell body is 153.5 mm long, 127 mm wide across the top and 134.8 mm wide and 96.7 mm deep across the mouth opening, while the metal is 3 mm thick; the suspension loop has a diameter of 64.3 mm and is 6.3 by 6 mm thick; the clapper is 105 mm long and has a diameter of 14.5 mm. The bell has a weight of 1100 grams [RTS 7/12/2004].

Geographical reference

South Sudan

Africa > Eastern Africa > South Sudan

Warab Fanamweir

Cultural groups

Dinka

Person

Field collector Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton

Field collector Hannah Powell-Cotton

PRM source Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1933

Date collected

3rd May 1933

Acquisition information

Donated: 1934

Materials and processes

Material Iron Metal, Process Forged (Metal), Process Hammered, Process Bent

Dimensions

Diameter 64.3 mm suspension loop, Height 96.7 mm, Height 153.5 mm bell, Height 190 mm total, Length 105 mm clapper, Width 134.8 mm, Weight 1100 g

Object numbers

Accession number: 1934.8.14 Other numbers: 2398

Research and responses

The way in which the term 'White Nile' has been used seems to have changed since this object was collected; Fanamweir appears to be located in the administrative district of Warab in the Southern Sudan. Powell-Cotton made ethnographic films during his 1932-3 shooting expedition to southern Sudan; footage included a Dinka hunter setting a trap, a staged fight between a Dinka and Jur, and a female Dinka potter at work (see the description in Mrs Powell Cotton, "Village Handicrafts in the Sudan", Man 34 (112), pp 90-91).

While the term lut does not appear in Nebel's dictionary as a bell (he describes it as 'to become red (tanning)', there is a similar word that may be the one Powell-Cotton meant; Lôth, which Nebel defines as ‘bell’ (Nebel 1979, Dinka-English Dictionary, p. 52).

For a similar, but slightly larger Dinka bell, see 1979.20.103; for the type of collar used to hang such bells around the necks of cattle, see 1979.20.93. Similar bells are also found in other cultures, such as the Ganda of Uganda; the Acholi also use this type as cow bells (M. Trowell & K.P. Wachsmann, 1953, Tribal Crafts of Uganda, pl. 77I; p. 327).

Cattle bells were an early trade item in the Sudan; Petherick notes that this was one of the things the Shilluk received from Arab traders in exchange for slaves and ivory (J. Petherick, 1861, Egypt, The Sudan and Central Africa, p. 351) [RTS 9/12/2004].

Search terms: Music, Animal Gear, Musical Instrument, Cattle Accessory, Bell