- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Parrying shield of ambatch wood with cylindrical body and hollowed out hand grip at centre [RTS 15/7/2005].
- Long description
- Parrying shield carved from a single piece of soft, lightweight wood, probably ambatch, with a yellowish coloured core (Pantone 7509C) and an outer covering of of reddish brown bark (Pantone 476C), possibly stained. This has a cylindrical body with oval section and flat cut ends, one of which is broader than the other. A rectangular recess has been hollowed out at the centre of one side to form a hand grip, leaving a narrow rectangular piece running across the centre to serve as a handle; the handle has a convex inner face, while the hollow itself is concave to provide room for the knuckles. The shield is complete, but with a damaged surface, where large areas of the outer bark have been lost and the wood has begun to split. It has a weight of 903.6 grams and is 990 mm long, with a diameter at one end of 115 by 107 mm, and at the other of 84.7 by 75.5 mm. The hollow recess is 93 mm long and 81 mm wide, while the handle has a width of 33.8 mm [RTS 15/7/2005].
- Geographical reference
- Cultural groups
- Shilluk
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1903
- Date collected
- By 1903
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1903
- Materials and processes
- Material Wood Plant, Process Carved, Process Hollowed, Process Stained
- Dimensions
- Diameter: max 116 mm, Length: max 983 mm, Weight 903.6 g
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1903.16.116
- Research and responses
Although the term 'Upper Nile' is now used to refer to a modern administrative district, covering a stretch of the Bahr el Abiad from Geigar to Malakal, and the Sobat River to Nasir, at the time this object was collected the term was used differently. Up until 1981, it was the name of a province that covered the districts now known as Upper Nile, Jonglei, Wahda and part of el Buheyrat. It may also have been used to describe the Bahr el Abiad and/or Bahr el Jebel rivers.
This shield was collected from the Shilluk, and although the accession notes suggest it came from another culture, this need not have been the case, as this type of shield was used by the Shilluk as well as by neighbouring groups of Dinka and Nuer (see D. Westermann, 1912, The Shilluk People, Their Language and Folklore, and Plaschke, D. & Zirngibl, M.A., 1992, African Shields, fig. 64, p. 75). Domville Fife discusses the type in some detail: "[The Shilluk] ... have two kinds of shield. One is a small semicircle of light ambach wood, used as an arm-guard when lion hunting and also when fighting from canoes or rafts. The other is a large shield of hippopotamus hide ... (C.W. Domville Fife, 1927, Savage Life in the Black Sudan, p. 69 and figure on p. 70). A Bari origin for this example, as suggested in the accession book, seems less likely.
These shields were often given a hide covering, and served a multiple function as shield, headrest and stool. For similar examples in the collection, see 1934.8.31 and 1937.34.44 (Nuer), 1932.30.4 (Rueng Dinka), and 1979.20.80 (Dinka Tuich).
The object is made from ambatch wood (Aeschynomene sp.), a type of leguminous shrub found through many parts of Africa, including the Sudan, growing in river shallows to a height of 4 to 6 metres. This wood is light and spongy, making it ideal for this type of object (source: http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/B1AB.HTM). [RTS 15/8/2005].
1903.16.116
Parrying shield of ambatch wood with cylindrical body and hollowed out hand grip at centre [RTS 15/7/2005].
1903.16.116
Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
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