{"id":"ANATOLIA-003","label":"Turkish toothed bullroarers, Eldivan (fırıldak)","people_or_site":"Eldivon, Çankırı (Turkey)","country_current":"Turkey","historic_region":"Cankiri / Eldivon","macroregion":"Near East / Anatolia","local_name":"fırıldak / vırıldak / kıcırdak","source_term":"Bullroarer","source_language":"Turkish terms in English catalog","object_description":"Toothed rotating-blade bullroarer, MAA 1977.220, from the Picken Turkish folk-instrument collection.","function_summary":"Made by local children: these very blades are the work of İsmail, Hasan and Ahmet Sarıca, cut from previously dressed wood. The fırıldak is a toy whirled on its cord at arm's length, its circle sized to the child.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"MAA_1977_220","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/505976/","page_or_plate":"MAA 1977.220; Picken 1975, Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey, plate 31a i-iii and pp.370ff cited by catalog","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Eldivon town/area representative anchor.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Three toothed wooden bullroarers from Eldivan in Çankırı province, made by local children — the plate in Laurence Picken's Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey names İsmail, Hasan and Ahmet Sarıca — from wood already dressed rather than worked from the rough, which is why, Picken notes, they are not entirely typical of the region's make. The names he recorded are toy-words: fırıldak, the everyday Turkish term for a whirligig, pinwheel or weathervane, with its onomatopoeic siblings vırıldak and kıcırdak. Each blade is cut with teeth along its edge, so the whirling strip of wood bites the air rather than slicing it cleanly; spun on a cord at arm's length, the toy's circle is sized to the child swinging it.","pull_quote":"Bullroarers (firildak, virildak, kicirdak). All three toothed.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Cambridge MAA, accession 1977.220 (object record)","term_gloss":"Turkish names for the spinning blade. Fırıldak is the everyday word for a whirligig, pinwheel, weathervane or spinning top, built on the root fır- (to whirl); vırıldak and kıcırdak are onomatopoeic siblings, formed on Turkish sound-roots for a whirring and a creaking, grating noise.","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"etymology":"The Cambridge/Picken labels record firildak, virildak, and kicirdak for Turkish rotating-blade bullroarers. Fırıldak is the everyday Turkish word for a whirligig or spinning toy; virildak and kicirdak are its whirring and creaking siblings.","literal_gloss":"whirligig / spinning toy","semantic_cluster":"motion; spinning; toy; instrument_name","etymology_confidence":"medium","sources":[{"citation":"Cambridge MAA 1977.220, Bullroarer - rotating blades bullroarers (firildak, virildak, kicirdak), all three toothed; place Türkiye, Çankırı/Çonkiri, Eldivon; vendor Laurence E.R. Picken; Laurence Picken, Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey (1975), pp. 368, 371-372","url":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/505976/","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013124755/https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/505976/"}],"source_citations":"Cambridge MAA 1977.220, Bullroarer - rotating blades bullroarers (firildak, virildak, kicirdak), all three toothed; place Türkiye, Çankırı/Çonkiri, Eldivon; vendor Laurence E.R. Picken; Laurence Picken, Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey (1975), pp. 368, 371-372","source_display":"Cambridge MAA 1977.220, Bullroarer - rotating blades bullroarers (firildak, virildak, kicirdak), all three toothed; place Türkiye, Çankırı/Çonkiri, Eldivon; vendor Laurence E.R. Picken; Laurence Picken, Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey (1975), pp. 368, 371-372","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Toothed rotating-blade bullroarer, MAA 1977.220, from the Picken Turkish folk-instrument collection.","function_display":"Made by local children: these very blades are the work of İsmail, Hasan and Ahmet Sarıca, cut from previously dressed wood. The fırıldak is a toy whirled on its cord at arm's length, its circle sized to the child.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"eldivon","display_name":"Turkish toothed bullroarers, Eldivan (fırıldak)","image":{"full":"assets/objects/HAD1898-044_haddon_fig38_no9_balham.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/HAD1898-044_haddon_fig38_no9_balham_thumb.jpg","alt":"Haddon’s drawing of a flat Balham schoolboy’s blade, with deep zigzag notches cut along both long edges and a cord through a hole near the left end.","credit":"A. C. Haddon, The Study of Man (1898), fig. 38 no. 9","license":"Public domain (published 1898)","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/studyofman00hadd/page/277/mode/1up","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Balham schoolboy’s serrated blade, Haddon fig. 38 no. 9.","pool_id":"auto-HAD1898-044_haddon_fig38_no9_balham"},"slug":"anatolia-003-eldivon-cank-r-turkey"}