A.0047
is a set of two pieces: a knife and its sheath.
The knife is
symmetrical, consisting of blade and hilt. It has a non-decorative plain blade,
sharpened on both edges, narrowing down from the connection part with the hilt
to the relatively sharp tip. The blade is mainly dark grey, relatively hard and
tough, made by iron-alloy (most possibly steel). It may have been smelted in a shaft
furnace and then smithed and forged, which left hammer marks on the blade
surface. At the connection part of the blade and the hilt, there are two pieces
of copper-alloy (brass or bronze) welded on both sides of the blade. The hilt
can be divided into two parts, a flat wooden grip and an ‘umbrella’ shaped tin
or tin-alloy pommel. The grip was made through several steps: crosscutting a
cylindrical log from a tree branch, carving it to make the interval ridges and
depressions, then gilding a very thin piece of tin-alloy at the connection part
to the blade, and finally painting with pigments.
The sheath, with soft tufts of leather thongs
and a designed ribbon, was decorated with various geometrical designs on both
sides. Due to the hair follicle pattern, the usage of various animal skins and
the main livestock types in Northern Nigeria, most possibly the sheath was made of calfskin through cleaning, tanning, cutting, thonging and
carving (Douglas, 1956: 64; Kite and Thomson, 2006: 11-21; Shaw, 1978: 17-20).
A.0047
was most possibly made by the local people for daily usage or trade. During or
after the colonial period (1870-1910), it may have been collected and brought back by
European colonial travellers who may have thought that the object represented the
indigenous industries of Northern Nigeria (Anozie, 1998: 255-257). The strips
of newspapers sticking on both sides of the blade can be used to interpret
that. Then, A.0047 was donated to UCL Ethnographic Collections in the mid-20th
century. It is an important example of material culture of Northern Nigeria and
studied by researchers and students in UCL Ethnographic Collections now.
The
overall condition of A.0047 is acceptable, but the soft tufts of leather thongs
on the sheath are in active deterioration condition and need to be conserved
with a high priority. The structure and decoration surfaces of both the knife
and sheath are in good condition. Iron-alloy corrosion is on both sides near
the edges of the blade. The leather sheath body was a little bit deteriorated
and abraded, with lots of dirt and dust accumulated in patterns.
References:
Anozie, F. N., (1998). An archaeological study of ironworking at Umundu: the decline and
continuity of an indigenous tration. In: K. Welser, ed. Historical Archaeology in Nigeria, 1st
ed. Africa World Press, Inc., pp. 243-258.
Douglas, G.
(1956). Survey of the production of hides, skins and rough-tanned
leathers in India, Pakistan, Ceylon and Africa. 1st ed. Egham: British
Leather Manufacturers' Research Association.
Kite, M. and
Thomson, R. (2006). Conservation of leather and related materials.
1st ed. Oxford: Elsevier Ltd.
Shaw, T., (1978). Nigeria Its Archaeology and
Early History. 1st ed. London: Thames and Hudson.
UCL MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS, (2017). UCL Ethnographic Collections' Online Catalogue. Available online: http://ethcat.museums.ucl.ac.uk/default.aspx [Accessed 25th.Apr. 2017].
This post refers to coursework done for ARCLG142 (2016-17), one of the core courses of the UCL MA Principles of Conservation. As part of their assessed work for this course, students were asked to investigate objects from the UCL Ethnography Collections at the UCL Department of Anthropology. Here they present a summary of their main conclusions. We hope you enjoy our work! Comments are most welcome.
This post refers to coursework done for ARCLG142 (2016-17), one of the core courses of the UCL MA Principles of Conservation. As part of their assessed work for this course, students were asked to investigate objects from the UCL Ethnography Collections at the UCL Department of Anthropology. Here they present a summary of their main conclusions. We hope you enjoy our work! Comments are most welcome.
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