Sword
date: label: Accession Date
content: 6 May 1943
name: label: Donor Name
content: Ralph G. Packard
notes: label: Notes
content: Note re photos: Neg. #2005-25306 is color digital of sword. Neg. #2005-25307 is color digital detail shot of sword blade showing two adjacent sections of script. From card: "Back-curved, single-edged steel blade with two grooves on each side. Most of each side covered with four large sections of acid applied designs which have been said to be portions of the Koran in Arabic but which apparently are only designs and not actually a language (Dr. Gus Van Beek) Similar to Cat. nos. 325207 & 360045.. Simple wooden handle expanding slightly at each end of the grip. (One corner broken off) Refer: Stone: "Glossary of Arms and Armor", p. 365, fig. 459, no. 21 and 23. It has been called a "dervish sword." Transferred from Mil. Hist. Jan. 1966." Locality on catalogue card is listed as "Omduran, Sudan." This is probably in fact Omdurman (capital of Mahdist Sudan, across the river from Khartoum). - F. Pickering 1-29-2008 Illus. Fig. 11.8, p. 134 in Kreamer, Christine Mullen, and Sarah Adams. 2007. Inscribing meaning writing and graphic systems in African art. [Washington, D.C.]: Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art. Identified there as saber inscribed with pseudo-Arabic, Sudan, late 19th to early 20th century. Note: Exhibit bracket for this object is stored with the object. Bracket was made for "Inscribing Meaning" exhibit.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 7 Jul 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Sudan, Africa
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 164794
label: USNM Number
content: E404668-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Sword
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 92.5 cm