{"id":"BPHED2026-001","label":"Burgess Point / Port Hedland Complex bullroarer motif","people_or_site":"Burgess Point / Stingray Creek Area, Port Hedland Complex","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"Western Australia / Pilbara / Port Hedland / Burgess Point","macroregion":"Australia / Western Australia","local_name":"","source_term":"bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"An engraved bullroarer among the motifs of the Burgess Point limestone engraving complex.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"rock_art_depiction","source_key":"dcceew2016_rock_art_thematic_study_port_hedland","source_type":"government_rock_art_thematic_study","source_url":"https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/rock-art-thematic-study.pdf","page_or_plate":"Rock Art Thematic Study pp. 36-37 and 124-126; Harper 2025 Table 1 for regional Marapikurrinya chronology; no exact motif image resolved","map_confidence":"medium_high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Public Burgess Point / Port Hedland coastal anchor, not exact engraving coordinates. The source gives Port Hedland Complex/Burgess Point locations, but this atlas point is intentionally generalized for cultural-site sensitivity and because the exact bullroarer motif panel has not been image-pinned.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Almost every bullroarer is a thing swung to make a voice; this one was carved into stone and stays silent. At Burgess Point, a low limestone shelf ringed by mangrove mudflats at Marapikurrinya (Port Hedland), Kariyarra people pecked more than five hundred motifs across some seven thousand years: animal tracks, marine creatures, boomerangs and shields, and the upside-down-U Minjiburu ancestor-spirits from whom the Kariyarra descend. Among them sits a single engraved bullroarer. What rite that outline belonged to, the stone does not record.","pull_quote":"produced semi-continuously over the last 7000 years, from the point of sea-level stabilisation","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Sam Harper 2025, \"Tracking Change in Rock Art Vocabularies and Styles at Marapikurrinya,\" Arts 14(5):123, abstract/introduction.","term_gloss":"","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"f_archaeology":true,"archaeology_kind":"rock_art","date_display":"Within the last c. 7,000 years","date_qualification":"Regional engraving sequence; motif undated.","date_basis":"regional_only","date_confidence":"low","date_citation":"dcceew2016_rock_art_thematic_study_port_hedland, pp. 36–37 and 124–126; McCarthy 1962 p. 11; Harper 2025 section 2.2 and table 1 p. 10; Lewis et al. 2013","sources":[{"citation":"Centre for Rock Art Research and Management, UWA, Rock Art Thematic Study (DCCEEW, 2016), pp. 36-37 and 124-126; Sam Harper, \"Tracking Change in Rock Art Vocabularies and Styles at Marapikurrinya (Port Hedland, Northwest Australia),\" Arts 14(5):123 (2025)","url":"https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/rock-art-thematic-study.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20250218081852/https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/rock-art-thematic-study.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Centre for Rock Art Research and Management, UWA, Rock Art Thematic Study (DCCEEW, 2016), pp. 36-37 and 124-126; Sam Harper, \"Tracking Change in Rock Art Vocabularies and Styles at Marapikurrinya (Port Hedland, Northwest Australia),\" Arts 14(5):123 (2025)","source_display":"Centre for Rock Art Research and Management, UWA, Rock Art Thematic Study (DCCEEW, 2016), pp. 36-37 and 124-126; Sam Harper, \"Tracking Change in Rock Art Vocabularies and Styles at Marapikurrinya (Port Hedland, Northwest Australia),\" Arts 14(5):123 (2025)","date_citation_display":"Dcceew 2016 Rock Art Thematic Study Port Hedland, pp. 36–37 and 124–126; McCarthy 1962 p. 11; Harper 2025 section 2.2 and table 1 p. 10; Lewis et al. 2013","object_display":"An engraved bullroarer among the motifs of the Burgess Point limestone engraving complex.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"medium to high","attestation_label":"rock art depiction","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"burgess point","display_name":"Burgess Point / Port Hedland Complex bullroarer motif","image":{"full":"assets/objects/expansion_2026_07/MUS2026-040_wereldmuseum_rv1321-47.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/expansion_2026_07/thumbs/MUS2026-040_wereldmuseum_rv1321-47_thumb.jpg","alt":"Yindjibarndi bullroarer from the Pilbara, Wereldmuseum RV-1321-47: a long tapered wooden blade densely incised with repeating chevrons, with a small hole near one tip.","credit":"Wereldmuseum / NMVW (RV-1321-47)","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","source_page":"https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/694180","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Incised Yindjibarndi bullroarer from the Pilbara.","pool_id":"auto-expansion_2026_07--MUS2026-040_wereldmuseum_rv1321-47"},"slug":"bphed2026-001-burgess-point-stingray-creek-area-port-hedland-complex"}