Arme africane în colecția Muzeului de Istorie Sighișoara
African Weapons in the Collection of the Sighişoara Museum of History

Summary/Abstract: The museums in Romania contain a series of collections of exotic objects. These, for the most part, came from a different geographical area, especially from other continents. These, have become under certain circumstances and for various reasons, part of the museums heritage and were included in their inventories. Unfortunately, such collections often do not attract the attention of specialists in the field, although some of the objects are of a special importance.The Sighişoara History Museum, founded in 1899 holds in addition to collections of archeology, history, pharmacy, numismatics, modern history, a collection of African objects. Within this collection, we identified eight weapons. The collection belonged to the Evangelical Gymnasium in Sighişoara, being used probably for didactical purposes. Unfortunately, we do not have data related to their provenance. As we know, Transylvanian explorers arrived in the 19th century in Africa – and we mention here Franz Binder, Emil Holub, or Teleki Sàmuel, who brought along specific African objects, when returning from their journey. It is possible that some of these collections became the property of the Evangelical Gymnasium in Sighişoara and later of the local History Museum.Dated in the nineteenth century, the eight weapons are: two arrows (Pl. I/1, II/4), a quiver (Pl. I/2), a spear head (Pl. I/4). This piece has analogies in the northern Congo/Zaire River basin. Then a two-edged throwing knife used both in battles and hunting (Pl. II/2). This knife has analogies to those used by the Anzande population of the Democratic Republic of Congo. A hunting knife, similar to a sickle, used both for hunting and as a weapon (Pl. II/2) and finally an African cleaver knife (Pl. II/3). It was generally used in the preparation of meat, but the presence of the ivory handle and decorations on its handle make us presume we are dealing with a ritual object.From the short description above, we notice that we have objects, which demonstrate the unique artistic skill of African craftsmen. We do not know how they got into the museum collection of the Evangelical Gymnasium in Sighişoara, but we believe that they have fulfilled their educational purpose in history or geography classes at this school.Last but not least, the presence of these African objects in Sighişoara also demonstrates the ethnological and anthropological preoccupations existing at the time, for discovering a continent, little known, although nearby, such as Africa, especially its central area.

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