FermenteaWhere food goes to change
Equipment · Churns, agitators and drums
sqa · qirbah · Dhofar goatskin churn
A flexible goat-skin bag from Dhofar hangs by a long cord and is rocked to churn milk or buttermilk. The British Museum records one 1970s specimen; churning is mechanical separation, not proof that the milk fermented.
The British Museum’s As1985,18.4 is a brown goat-skin bag made in Dhofar in the 1970s. The bottom is closed with a thick stitched and embroidered leather strip. At the open top, a plaited leather handle and long waxed cord provide the points for suspending the flexible body. The museum says it could hang from a tripod or tree branch, with enough room to rock back and forth. This is a particular collected object, not a standard pattern for every skin churn.
Its measured bag body is 58 cm long and 20.5 cm wide; the full length with cord is 87 cm. The museum gives a weight of 240 g. It records no capacity, and these measurements do not establish how much milk a reader could safely load into another bag.
The museum identifies the bag as a churn for milk or buttermilk, used to make laban, and also records storage or transport of water and camel or goat milk. In its churn use, the suspended skin bag is rocked repeatedly. That movement agitates the contents and separates milk solids; it is a mechanical operation. The record does not show that fermentation occurred in every use, so the churn should not be described as a fermenter merely because some of its contents may be fermented milk.
A qirbah is also named as a water or milk bag in the museum record, while sqa is used for the churning bag. The object's role depends on how it is used, not on the outline of the soft skin body alone.
The British Museum attributes the bag to Bedouin makers and records it as made at Tawi Ateer, Jabal Qara, in Dhofar, Oman. Its production date is given as the 1970s, and the donor’s tag records collection in 1978. These details locate and date this specimen; they do not establish where the broader churn tradition began or how far it extended.
The museum lists goat leather, goat skin and wool among its materials. Its object description identifies the stitched closure, plaited handle and waxed cord, but does not say which part contains wool or what fibre makes the cord. The page likewise gives no cleaning, drying or storage procedure and no present-day route for obtaining a comparable churn.
The source documents a churn as well as water and milk storage or transport, but a bag's shape alone does not identify which use it had.
Source →Churning is mechanical agitation and separation; this museum record does not establish that every milk use included fermentation.
Source →The British Museum records this specimen as made and collected here; this does not establish a single origin or the full distribution of qirbah or sqa churns.
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The British MuseumForm · Materials · Use · Geography · Date
milk-container (bag); churn; butter-churn; water-bagBritish Museum record As1985,18.4 describes a brown goat-skin bag used to churn milk or buttermilk into laban, with alternative storage and transport uses.
The object record documents a thick stitched and embroidered leather closure at the bottom, a plaited leather handle at the open top, and a long waxed suspension cord used to hang and rock the bag from a tripod or tree branch.
The museum dates the specimen to the 1970s, records it as made and collected at Tawi Ateer, Jabal Qara, Dhofar, Oman, and gives a body length of 58 cm, overall length of 87 cm with cord, width of 20.5 cm, and weight of 240 g.
Churning is mechanical separation; the object record does not establish fermentation as part of every use.
Cited in: A bag designed to swing; Churning is a separate operation; One recorded Dhofar specimen