On the Egyptian Boomerang and Its Affinities. Author(S): Pitt Rivers Source: the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol

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On the Egyptian Boomerang and its Affinities. Author(s): Pitt Rivers Source: The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 12 (1883), pp. 454-463 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2841682 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 01:24

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This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:24:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 454 LIEUT.-GEN. PITT RIVERS.-On theEgyptiaan Boomerang hatchetswith red paint as mahadeo. Curiouslyenough, the Egyptianhieroglyph for Nouter, God, is the figureof an axe. The popularbelief of sulchhatchets being thunderbolts, he observed,was ofvery wide range. Thoughpolished stone hatchetshad already been broughtfrom the West Coast by Mr. WinwoodReade and Mr. Bowen,he believedthat theyhad not as yet been foundin SouthernAfrica. ProfessorBOYD DAWKINS, Lord TALBOTDE MAIAHIDE,Dr. Ross, and the PRESIDENTtook part in the discussion. CommanderCAMERON described a numberof objectsof eth- nological interest fromthe West Coast of Africa,which had been brouightfor exhibition by himself,Captain Burton,and Dr. Ross.

The PRESIDENT exhibited an ancient Egyptian Boomerang, fromThebes, which had been lately added to his collection,and read the followingpaper:

On theEGYPTIAN BOOMERANG and its AFFINITIES. By Lieut.-GeneralPITT RIvERS, F.R.S.

[WITH PLATE XIV.]

WHEN at Thebes, in March, 1881, I heard that an ancient Egypian boomeranghad been sold to Dr. Pinkerton,who was at that time livingon board a Dahbeeah in the river. 1 made severalinquiries about it,but failedto elicit anyfurther particulars,and not havingthe pleasure of Dr. Pinkerton'sacquaintance, I subsequentlyforgot all aboutit. About a monthago I received a letterfrom Mr. Samson Gemmel,of Glasgow,informing me that a friendof his,without mentioninghis name,had lately died, and had left me a boomerang. Thinking it was probablyan Australianboomerang, of whichI had alreadya sufficientnumber in my collection,I wrotethanking him for the present, and again the matterescaped my memoryuntil within the last few days, when a parcel arrivedwhich I opened,and to my surpriseand satisfactionI found that it containedthe rare and valuable specimen of an ancient Egyptian boomerang,now upon the table, and figuredin No. 6, Plate XIV. I at once recognisedit by the wood,its form,and its peculiar ornamentation,which exactly resembledtwo others which I had seen and drawn,and whichhad been lately added to the British Museum. I thereforewrote to Mr. Gemmelfor further particulars,and he in reply informedme that the friend referredto was Dr. Pinkerton,who, before his death, had

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:24:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions and its Affinities. 455 includedamongst his last requests the desire that the weapon in question,which he had obtainedat Thebes about the time I have mentioned,should be added to my collection. At the same time that this weapon was procuredat Thebes, the two othersmentioned above were obtained,probably from the same tomb,and they have found their way, throughMr. Greville Chester,into the British Museum. One, represented in fig.7, Plate XIV, is hooked at the end and slightlytwisted; the other,fig. 8, Plate XIV, exactlyresembles mine, but is less neatly finished. Both are ornamentedexactly in the same manneras mine,by means of fourparallel grooveswhich run down the centreof the blade on each side, and theyare of the same size and depthin all three specimens. The one with the hookedblade is furthermarked with an inscriptionrepresented in the annexed woodcut,marked A, whichhas been ideutified

CAlT uCHiuORAMESES THE GRAT. as pa-rtof the cartouche of Rameses the Great, 1355 B.C.; andithere can be littledoubt, I think,that all three must have come fromthe great find of antiquitiesrecently discovered at Thebes,and whichcontained, amongst others, the mummyof that monarch.' Anotherflat-curved stick in the Boulak Museum., about 3 feet6 inachesin length,and probablya stickfor throwing, but of a laterperiod, is inscribedwith the cartoucherepresented in the woodcutB, which Dr. Birch has interpretedfor me as

B3.

TA-A-A, SON OF THESU BERLVING

1This great find had been discoveredwhen I was at Luxor; I had heard of it, altho-ughits whereaboutshad not been disclosedito me, but it had in fact been offeredto me for a large sum,which I declined,thiinking it ought to remainm Egypt.

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:24:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 456 LIEUT.-GEN. PITT RIvERS.-On theEgyptian Boomerang

"Son of the Sun (TA-A-A) Ever-living,"and of the period of the 17th dynasty. I have drawn on the accompanyingplate other ancient Egyptianboomerangs that are to be seen in differentmuseums. Fig. 9, Plate XIV, has been in the British Museum for some time. I conclude it is the one mentionedby Sir Gardner Wilkinsonas having been found by Mr. Burton at Thebes. I had a fac-sinilemade of it for experimentsome yearsago, and found that by throwingit against the wind I could make it returnto myfeet several times running: it has a flatenlargement at one end, and a similarbut smallerenlargement at the other. Two others,figs. 3 and 10, Plate XIV, are nearlylike it,but have no enlargementat one end. No. 3 is in the Boulak Museum at Cairo, where I took a drawingof it and of the othersin the same museum,by permissionof M. Maspero,who informsme that both this and figs.1, 2, and 4, were obtained fromDrah- abool-Neggah,at Thebes, and are of the periodof the 11th and 12th dynasties-say 3064 B.c. Fig. 10 is in the Louvre at Paris; figs.1, 2, and 4 resemblethis, except that theyhave en- largementsof equal size at both ends. Fig. 5 is a small one of bone,in the Boulak Museum. Fig. 7 is the one to whichI have referredas being markedwith tlle name of Rameses the Great, 1355 B.C. It has a flat enlargementat one end, and the oppositeend is hookedand slightlytwisted. I had a fac-simile made of it for experiment,and a similartwist given to the curvedend; but it was foundthat it had no effectin screwing it up in the air, as indeed mightbe anticipatedfrom its weight and thickness,and the shortnessof the curvedarm. I have not been able to detect any intentionaltwist in the others,and it seems probable thatthe twist in this one may have resulted fromwarping during the timethat it was embeddedin the tomb. Figs. 6 and 8 have an oval enlargementat the handle end, in- tended no douLbtto compensatein weightfor the greaterwidth of the boomerangat the opposite end. The firstis in my possession,and is the one given me by Dr. Pinkerton,and the other is in the British Museum. All these boomerangshave more or less flatsections, as shownin the plate, and the section is symmetricalon both sides-not flaton one side and convexon the other,as is the case with some of the Australian weapons. They differin appearancefrom the boomerangsof the Egyptian sculpturesfigured by Sir GardnerWilkinson in having a single curve,whereas those represented in the hands of fowlersin the sculptureshave generallya double curve somewhatin the form of a drawn-outS, verymuch elongatedand straightened. This must representa differentvariety of the weapon. Some of the Australian boomerangsare S-shaped. All the Egyptian

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This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:24:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions and its A4jinities. 457 boomerangsrepresented in the plate, it will be seen, except figs.6 and 8, which have the oval handle,are more curved at one end than the other. Having now describedall the ancient Egyptian boomerangs that I have been able to take drawingsof in differentmuseums, and havingshown clearly by the sectionsattached to each that they are true flat boomerangs,and not merelyround curved sticks,as has been erroneouslyassumed by some writerswho have been guided only by the representationof them in the sculptures,I have only furtherto say a few words as to the significanceof this formin its bearing on the possibilityof connectionwith other countriesin which the boomerangis used. I findthat my views on thissubject have been misrepresented, owingmainly, I presume,to thefact that some more or less casual remarksof mine in my addressto the AnthropologicalDepart- ment of the British Associationin 1872 have been widely circulated,whilst two previouspapers in which I discussedthe subject in detail, in the years 1867 and 1868, having been publishedby the Royal United Service Institution,the Journal ofwhich Society' is notso generallyaccessible to anthropologists, have received no attention. It has been assumed that I supposed the Egyptian and Dravidian boomerangsto be iden- tical with that particularvariety of the weapon which in Australia is made to returnto the throwerafter being hurled at the object it is intendedto strike,whereas the veryreverse is whatI statedin the papers to which I refer. I have there shown,by giving a descriptionof all the differentvarieties of the boomerangused by the natives of Australia, that the Egyptianboomerang, the trombushof the blacks of Abyssinia, and that of the blacks of Hindustan,correspond only to one class of the Australianboomerang, viz., that used by them for war, and consideredthe most usefulweapon theyemploy, and that this formdiffers from the returningboomerang, which I describeas " havinga slight lateral twistby means of which it is caused to rise in the air,screwing itself up preciselyin the same manneras a boy's flyingtop, which rises and spins upon the ceiling."2 This last kind of boomerang,I have contended, is merelya varietyof the war boomerang,and is peculiar to the continentof Australia,and not found elsewhere,and that 1 "J ournal of the Royal United ServiceInstitution," vols. xi-xiii,1877-9. 2 The formof the returningboomerang, its curve,its twist,and its peculiar section,flat on one side aiid convex on the other,has long been knownin this country,and fac-similesof it have been used as toys for many years. More thanforty years ago, when a boy,I practisedwith one of them copied froman Australianspecimen, and acquiredsome skillin throwingit so as to returnto me repeatedly,and also to psss behindme in its returnflight. VOL. XII. 2K

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:24:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 458 LIEUT.-GEN.PITT RIVERS.-On theEgyptian Boomerang it is a developmentof the plain war boomerang,which latter is used by severalof the black races borderingon the Indian Ocean as well as by the Australians. Whetherthe returningboome- rangof Australia is a weapon of precisionor not is immaterial, and not worthdiscussing in referenceto this questionof distribution,because it is not this,but the plain non-returningwar boomerang,which is foundon the three continentsof Africa, India, and Australia. It is not doubtedthat the black races of the world are more closelyallied to each otherthan to the rest of mankind. Their geographicaldistribution, no less thantheir physical peculiarities, favoursthe opinionthat, notwithstanding the wide seas which now separate them, and notwithstandingminor differences of hair and form,they must originally have spreadfrom a common centre,and if so musthave carriedwith them the mostprimitive kindsof weaponsof woodand stonethat are to be foundamongst savages in a low conditionof culture. Of this class of weapons the boomerangis one,but it is reasonableto supposethat they musthave takenit withthem in its moresimple and earlyform, and not in the more complexform into whichit developedon the continentof Australiaafter the separationhad takenplace. If it is said that the plain,non-returning boomerang, being a comparativelysimple contrivance,and one derivedfrom the use of naturalforms of sticks,might have been independently inventedin differentplaces, the replyis, why, if such is the case, was it notinvented on thecontinent of America,where nothing of thekind is foundallthe wayfrom Baffin's Bay toTierra delFuego?' Why is it not foundin Greenland,or Northernor EasternAsia, or the PacificIslands, in Europe or South Africa,or any part of the world which is not contiguousto the Indian Ocean? In India it is used only by the black aboriginesof the country;in Africa it is used by the blacks in Abyssiniaand the Upper Nile. I have here given illustrationsof two of these wooden boomerangs,called trombushon theUpper Nile, whichI copied fromspecimens in the EthnographicalMuseum at Copenhagen (figs.11 and 12, Plate XIV). It will be seen that theyresemble some of the Australianboomerangs in formand section. These or cognate weapons are describedby Sir Samuel Baker and others. From this region,allied weaponsin iron,called Hunga Munga, and variousother names, all derivedfrom the woodentrombush, spreadover CentralAfrica continuously to the west coast; but I

1 Care must be takento avoid confusionof terms,by mistakingthe throwing- stickof the Eskimo,Mexicans, anid South AmericanIndians, for the boomerang; this is a totally differentprinciple of weapon,although both are sometimes called throwing-sticks.

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:24:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions and its Affinities. 459 believe I am rightin saying that the wooden weapon is only foundin the Easterndivision of the continent,showing that its originwas fromthat source. At the time when my two papers alreadyreferred to were written,Professor Huxley was of opinion that the ancient Egyptianswere raciallyconnected with the Australians,and if such is the case, it would of course strengthenmy argumentfor a commonorigin for the boomerang,assuming it to have been originallyan Egyptian weapon; but it is not materialto my hypothesis,because thereis greatprobability that the Egyptian boomerangmay have been derivedin Egypt fromthe blacks withwhom the Egyptianswere always in suchclose connection; and in confirmationof thisit willbe noticedthat all the specimens figuredin the plate were obtainedfrom Thebes, that part of-the Egyptiandominion which was contiguolusto the countryof the blacks. In my formerpapers I havereferred to Mr.Fergusson's learned treatiseon theCateia. I hardlythink, however, that the evidence adducedby him is sufficientto establishthe use of the boomerang in Europe. If it were so, it was probablyderived from Africa,and developedfrom the Africanform; but the tradition of a returningweapon in Europe is mythical,and certainly referredto numerousobjects besides weapons which couildby no means have been derivedfrom boomerangs; the speculation on this subjectis moreinteresting than instructive. The argumentthat the plain boomerangis too simple a contrivanceto warrantits being supposed to have been carried froma commoncentre during the migrationsof the black races of mankindinto distantcontinents, must be met,firstly, by the fact of its geographicaldistribution, to which I have already referred,and secondly,by the considerationthat a weaponwhich appears simpleto us was not necessarilysimple to people in the mostprimitive condition of society. Thereis not the same necessitynow that there was when my two papers on primitivewarfare were written,to contendfor the gradual developmentof ideas. Evolution has since then foundacceptance in the world in relation to arts and culture no less than the physical developmentof race. The plain boomerang,such as it is, is found amongstthe Dravidians of India, the Egyptians,and the blacks of Africa. Simple as it appears to be as a mechanicalcontrivance, it was not thought out in a day,and it is easy to tracethe processby which it was arrivedat. The Australians,whether they are a pure or a mixed race, are withoutdoubt the most primitivepeople in existencein regardto theirarts. All theirvarious weapons are obtainedby 2KE

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:24:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 460 LIEUT.-GEN.PITT RIVERS.-On theEgyptian Boomerang a selection of natural forms,and they possess none of those complexforms which imply descent from a highercivilisation. Amongstthe existingweapons of the Australians,viewed as survivals,the whole historyof the boomerangmay be traced. Its developmentmay be dividedinto fourstages. Firstly,the origin of the weapon may be ascribed to the tendencyof all savages to throwtheir weapons at theirenemies. The NorthAmerican Indian throwshis tomahawk,the Indians of the Gran Chaco their " Macana," the Kaffirhis knobkerry, the Fiji Islander his club,the Australianhis " dowak," as well as his waddy. Such weapons when thrownnecessarily rotate in their flight,but not being speciallyadapted forrotation the movementis constantlyimpeded by theresistance of theair, and both the rangeand accuracy of the missile are necessarilyim- pairedthrough this cause. I include,therefore, in the firststage of the historyof the boomerangall weaponswhich are thrownby the hand,and whichare not speciallyadapted for rotation. In the secondstage it wouldbe discoveredthat a roundcurved stickwould rotatemore freely than a straightone. The impetus followingthe directionof the rotationwould overcomethe re- sistance affordedby the air to the movementof rotation. The weapon in its forwardmnovement would be rapidlypresented to the opposingair on its differentsides, and the resultwould be an increaseboth of rangeand accuracy. The thirdstage would be reached whenit was foundthat by splittingthe weapon in half throughoutits length,and thereby opposingto the atmospherea thinneredge, both the rotation and the range would be stilL furtherincreased. The weapon now sails throughthe air like the foreand aft sail of a vessel hauled up to the wind,whilst the axis of rotationcontinuing parallel to itself,upon the well-knownprinciple of rotating projectiles,would act as a rudder,tending to preservethe course of the weapon constantlyin the directionoriginally given to it. This I considerto be the most importantstage in the development of the booinerang. In this stage it is still used by the Australiansfor purposes of war,after they have furtheracquired a knowledgeof the returningor screw boomerang. It was in this stage that I supposeit was carriedby the black races into thosedistant regions in whichit is nowused. I have ascertained, by experimentingwith fac-similesof the Egyptianboomerang, that the firstidea of a returnflight may have occurredto the people who used the boonmerangin this stage. For, if the movementof transition,or forwardmovement, is broughtto a stop by the resistanceof the atmospherewhilst the weapon is still rising, the movementof rotation stilL continuing and causing the axis of rotationto continue parallel to itself,the

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:24:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions and its Affinities. 461 weapon in fallingwill slip back on an inclined plane towards the feet of the thrower,in the same mannerthat a kite when the stringis suddenlybroken will fall backwardsin the direction of its tail. But it would not be possible to constructall flat boomerangsthat are in this stage of perfectionupon a truly uniformplane. Bends and twists mustnaturally occur, from the imperfectionsof the wood and the rudeness of the im- plementsemployed to constructthem, and it would soon be foundthat certaintwists had the effectof causingthe weapon to screwitself up in the air like a child's flying-top.These accidentaltwists would be studiedand imitated,and thus the weapon would developinto its fourthstage of improvement. We have now,in the fourthstage, an additionalforce to con- siderin the flightof the weapon-istly, the movementof transition, or forwardmovement; 2ndly, the movementof rotation; 3rdly,the forceof gravitytending downwards; 4thly, the screw movementtending upwards, or at any rate in a directionthat is perpendicularto the plane of rotation. When thesetwo last movementsoperated in the same verticalline theywould simply neutraliseeach other,but when froma slightdivergence of the axis of rotationfrom the perpendicularthey began to operate at an angle with each other,the resultant would cause the weapon to flyoff in anotherdirection, and this,combined with the sailing propertiesof the weapon,to which I have already alluded,would producesome of the peculiarmovements of which the screw boomerangis capable. Diagrams of the flightof the weaponhave been givenby CaptainWilks, in his " Narrativeof the United States ExploringExpedition." By constantpractice and experience,which alone has been the instructorof thesavage during all these improvements,rather than by any knowledge of the principlesof its flight,he would soon learn to controland utilise these movementsso as to make the weapon return towardshim afterit had done its workin the air. But this last stage of improvement,so faras we at present know,was effectedin Australiaonly, and not in thosecountries into whichin its simplerform it had been previouslydistributed by the migrationof tribes. Now it has beenargued that because the Egyptian,African, and Dravidianboomerangs have not this propertyof being made to returnto the thrower,they were thereforeindependent inventions. To this argumentI cannot assent. If it is admittedas a valid argumentin the case of the boomerang,it must be applied also to other missiles under similar conditionsof occurrencein otherparts of the world. When the Englishand the Russiansfirst met each otherduring the CrimeanWar, the formerwere armedwith the rifle-musket, the latterwith a smooth-boremusket which was equivalentto

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:24:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 462 L]EUT.-GEN.PITT RIVERS.-On theEgyptian Boomeqrang the EnglishBrown Bess. The result-as I am in a positionto know fromhaving been intimatelyconnected with the experi- ments which led to the introductionof the rifle-musketin this country,and havinglikewise been a witnessto its firstapplica- tion in the field-greatly contributedto the success of the English overthe Russiansat theirfirst meeting. But applying the argumentunder consideration to this case, it shouldbe held that because the rifle-musketwas not Brown Bess, the one having a rotatingprojectile and the other not having that property,therefore firearms were independentlyinvented in England and in Russia. But we know betterthan to make any such statement. We know that firearmsin Europe had a common origin,and that the rifle-musketwas merely a developmentupon BrownBess, whichthe English happenedat that timeto have adoptedwhilst the Russianshad not. These,then, constitute the main points which I have advocated in assumingthat the boomerang,being a weapon of veryprimi- tive construction,and its presentdistribution being coincident withthe distribution of someof theblack races of man,-viewing the conservatismof savage people, and the enormoustime requisitefor the acceptanceof new ideas in a primitivecon- ditionof society,it maywith great probability be regardedas one of thoseweapons which primevalmen carriedwith them into distantparts from the home of theirancestors, wherever it was- possiblyfrom some continent in theIndian Oceannow submerged. It is, of course,a theorywhich, like most anthropological problemsrelating to the unknownpast, is open to doubt and criticism. But I thinkI am justifiedin askingthat my critics, whoeverthey may be, shouldat least read what I have written on the subject. I allude moreparticularly to the observationsof Mr. BroughSmyth, in his workon the "Aboriginesof Victoria." As an Australiancolonist he is of course entitledto be looked upon as an authorityin speakingof theweapons of theaborigines of that country,but as he has evidentlynot seen the boomerang of the othercountries referred to, he is not equally entitledto pronouncejudgment on the generalquestion. Referringto my briefremarks on the boomerangin my addressto the Anthro- pological Departmentof the BritishAssociation, he has put himselfto the pains of picking my observationsto pieces in detail. But it was not possible to condenseinto a few short lines,,making a briefallusion to previous writings,anything calculated,to stand the test of criticismof that kind. To do justice to the subject he should have referredto my previous papers on the subject,some of the argumentsin whichit is the objectof the presentcommunication to reproducein an abridged form. Had he done so he would have found that I had there

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:24:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions and its Affinities. 463 consideredmost of the points to which allusionis made in his work. He assumesthat I had oillyseen the simplerforms of the Australianboomerang; but in my previouspapers I refer,I believe,to all thevarious kinds of theweapon which he describes, and give illustrationsof some of them. He supposesthat I had neverseen the weaponused by natives,but in thepapers in ques- tionI makemention of the practiceof the Australianswho were exhibitingthe use of theirweapons in England at that time,and whose performancesI had studiedwith attention.- Supposing, as so manyothers have done,that the Egyptianboomerang was a round bent stick,he says that no doubta'slight tendency to returnmight be obtained fromsuch a weapon;2 but I doubt extremelywhether, with a simple round bent stick, even the firstidea of a return flightcould have suggesteditself, and certainlyI have neversaid so. I think,however, the figuresin the plate will sufficeto show that the Egyptian boomerangis not merelya bent stick, but a real flat boomerang. It is in what I call the third stage of development,and thereforeits affinityto the returningboomerang of the Australians is greaterthan has been supposed.

Descriptionof Plate XIV. Figs. 1-4, Egyptianboomerangs of wood in the Boulak Museum at Cairo. Fig. 5, bone dittoin the Boulak Museum. Fig. 6,wooden boomerang from Thebes (Pitt Riverscollection). Fig. 7, wooden boomerangfrom Thebes in the British Museum, having on it the cartouche of Rameses the Great,represented in the woodcutA of the text. Fig. 8,woodenboomerang,in the British Museum, from Thebes, withornamentation similar to figs.6 and 7. Fig. 9, wooden boomerang,in the BritishMuseum, from Thebes. Fig. 10, woodenboomerang,having an enlargementonly at one end, in the Louvre at Paris. Figs. 11 and 12, Africanboome- rangs,called trombush,in the EthnographicalMuseum at Copenhagen.

1 It is worthyof observationthat althoughthese natives,when exhibitingin this country,produced the most marvellousflights with the boomerang,using it as a toy,they never to my knowledgeattempted to employit as a weapon of precision. I shouldlike to knowhow manyanimals a nativein his own country will kill in a day with this weapon,by strikingthem in the returnflight, and underwhat circumstancesand forwhat purposesthe returnflight is employed. This questionof precision,however, is entirelybeside the questionof origin. 2 "It is quite possible,as Colonel Lane Fox states,to get some sortof return flightif a crookedstick be throwninto the air, but the wonguinof the Austra- lians is somethingmore than a crookedstick," " the flatleaf-like weapon of the Australians differsessentially from the Egyptian crookedstick."-(" The Aboriginesof Victoria,"vol. i, pp. 322, 323.)

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