Lot 144
  • 144

Ingessana or Murle Throwing Club, Sudan

Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 USD
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Description

  • cow hide, wood
  • Length: 25 1/2 in (64.8 cm)
wrapped in Domestic Cow (Bos taurus) hide.

Provenance

Anthony Ralph, London
Allan Stone, New York, acquired from the above on December 10, 1984

Catalogue Note

Sudanese throwing clubs such as the Stone example are exceedingly rare. A closely related throwing club is preserved in the Pitt-Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford, England (inv. no. "1944.10.24").  This club was collected by L. Gorringe in the Sudan between 1902 and 1912 and donated to the Pitt-Rivers Museum in 1944.

According to Rachael Sparks (September 30, 2005, quoted after http://southernsudan.prm.ox.ac.uk/details/1944.10.24/), "similar throwing sticks, called luny, were used by the Ingessana in hunting and warfare - see C. Spring, 1993, African Arms and Armour, fig. 69, p. 77 and R. Boccassino, 1960, 'Contributo allo studio della ergologia delle popolazioni nilotiche e nilo-camitiche', Annali Lateranensi XXIV, fig. 32a-e. It may also be related in some way to the flat bladed weapon collected from the Murle by Petherick ([Pitt-Rivers inv. no.] 1884.12.8)."