Wood identification in objects of Bambuti people from the Congo in the collection of the Slovene ethnographic museum

Čufar, Katarina (author), Beeckman, Hans (author), Frelih, Marko (author), Krže, Luka (author), Hubau, Wannes (author), Merela, Maks (author)

The African collection of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum (SEM) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, holds objects of everyday life from the Bambuti people from the Ituri forest, in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The items were collected by the anthropologist Paul Joachim Schebesta, possibly during his expeditions around 1930. The objects containing wood were selected for wood identification by using microscopic wood identification, with the help of the InsideWood database and reference samples from the xylarium of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium. The investigated musical instrument, a wooden zither, was made of wood of Musanga cecropioides, the handle of the shield of Alstonia sp., the dagger and sheath of Autranella congolensis or another high density species of Sapotaceae, and the crossbow of Nauclea diderichii (bow) and Xylopia sp. (stock). Wood identification helped us to gain additional information on the origin, knowledge of wood, and time of the collection of objects in the Congo.

• Language: English
• Keywords: museum objects, wood identification, Musanga cecropioides, Alstonia, Autranella congolensis, Nauclea diderichii, Xylopia, Africa
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 11.01.2023
• Year: 2022
• Number of pages: Str. 5-24
• Numbering: Let. 71, št. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-143767
• UDC: 630*811:630*176.1
• ISSN on article: 0024-1067
• COBISS.SI-ID: 137190403
• Publication date in RUL: 11.01.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Les
• Shortened title: Les
• Publisher: Zveza društev inženirjev in tehnikov gozdarstva in lesarstva Slovenije, Zveza društev inženirjev in tehnikov gozdarstva in lesarstva Slovenije, Biotehniška fakulteta, Oddelek za lesarstvo, Založba Univerze, Biotehniška fakulteta, Oddelek za lesarstvo, Založba Univerze
• ISSN: 0024-1067
• COBISS.SI-ID: 13940224

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Identifikacija lesa predmetov ljudstva Bambuti iz Konga v zbirki Slovenskega etnografskega muzeja

Abstract

Afriška zbirka Slovenskega etnografskega muzeja (SEM) v Ljubljani hrani predmete iz vsakdanjega življenja ljudstva Bambuti iz gozda Ituri, na severovzhodu Demokratične republike Kongo. Predmete je zbral antropolog Paul Joachim Schebesta med svojimi odpravami verjetno okoli leta 1930. Predmeti, ki so vsebovali adultni les, so bili izbrani za raziskavo in mikroskopsko identifikacijo lesa s podporo platforme InsideWood ter referenčne zbirke lesa Kraljevega muzeja za Srednjo Afriko v Tervurnu v Belgiji. Raziskano glasbilo (lesene citre) je bilo izdelano iz lesa vrste Musanga cecropioides, ročaj ščita iz vrste Alstonia sp., nožnica in bodalo iz Autranella congolensis ali sorodne vrste z visoko gostoto iz družine Sapotaceae, samostrel pa iz Nauclea diderichii (lok) in Xylopia sp. (ročaj). Identifikacija lesa je ponudila dodatne informacije o izvoru, poznavanju lesa in času zbiranja predmetov v Kongu.

• Keywords: muzejski predmeti, identifikacija lesa, Musanga cecropioides, Alstonia, Autranella congolensis, Nauclea diderichii, Xylopia, Afrika