{"id":"KEDDIE2023-001","label":"Departure Bay whalebone bullroarer","people_or_site":"Departure Bay shellmidden DhRx-16, Snuneymuxw (Island Halkomelem Coast Salish) territory, Nanaimo","country_current":"Canada","historic_region":"Departure Bay, Nanaimo, east coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia","macroregion":"North America / Northwest Coast","local_name":"","source_term":"whalebone bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Whalebone blade, 206 mm long by 42 mm at its widest, tapering up from the edge to a maximum thickness of 12 mm, with a single cord hole drilled near one end, mostly from one side. Royal BC Museum archaeology collection, DhRx-16:1166; rescued from bulldozed shellmidden.","function_summary":"Not recorded; the object came from bulldozed midden spoil with no stratum, date, cord, wear analysis, or associated use evidence.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"keddie2023_rbcm_bullroarers","source_type":"curatorial_article","source_url":"https://grantkeddie.com/2023/02/bullroarers-in-the-indigenous-collections-of-the-royal-b-c-museum/","page_or_plate":"Figures 4-5 (RBCM DhRx-16:1166)","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Approximate site-level point within the recorded archaeological site DhRx-16 at Departure Bay, Nanaimo, located from a City of Nanaimo building-permit record (BP103584) for a property on Departure Bay Road inside the site. The exact findspot within the bulldozed midden is unrecorded.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"When machines cut into an ancient shellmidden at Departure Bay, on Nanaimo's waterfront, John Sendey walked the spoil heaps and carried what he could save to the Royal B.C. Museum. Among the salvage was a slim, hand-long blade of whalebone, tapered like a willow leaf, a single cord hole drilled at one tip. Grant Keddie, the museum's longtime curator of archaeology, reads it as a bullroarer — smaller than the famous whalebone war clubs of this coast, too big for a toy. Torn from its layers by the bulldozer, it keeps its own counsel about who made it, and when.","pull_quote":"In the archaeology collection is what I suggest is a whalebone bullroarer. It is artifact DhRx-16:1166, from a large shellmidden at Departure Bay in Nanaimo... John Sendey rescued it from piles of bulldozed shellmidden.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Grant Keddie, 'Bullroarers in the Indigenous Collections of the Royal B.C. Museum' (2023)","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":"object","date_display":"Undated","date_qualification":"Unstratified midden-spoil find.","date_basis":"undated","date_confidence":"low","date_citation":"keddie2023_rbcm_bullroarers, Archaeological Bullroarers, figs. 4–5 (RBCM DhRx-16:1166)","sources":[{"citation":"Grant Keddie, 'Bullroarers in the Indigenous Collections of the Royal B.C. Museum' (written 2020, posted February 2023), grantkeddie.com, section 'Archaeological Bullroarers', Figures 4-5","url":"https://grantkeddie.com/2023/02/bullroarers-in-the-indigenous-collections-of-the-royal-b-c-museum/","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260516110350/https://grantkeddie.com/2023/02/bullroarers-in-the-indigenous-collections-of-the-royal-b-c-museum/"}],"source_citations":"Grant Keddie, 'Bullroarers in the Indigenous Collections of the Royal B.C. Museum' (written 2020, posted February 2023), grantkeddie.com, section 'Archaeological Bullroarers', Figures 4-5","source_display":"Grant Keddie, 'Bullroarers in the Indigenous Collections of the Royal B.C. Museum' (written 2020, posted February 2023), grantkeddie.com, section 'Archaeological Bullroarers', Figures 4-5","date_citation_display":"Archaeological Bullroarers, figs. 4–5 (RBCM DhRx-16:1166)","object_display":"Whalebone blade, 206 mm long by 42 mm at its widest, tapering up from the edge to a maximum thickness of 12 mm, with a single cord hole drilled near one end, mostly from one side. Royal BC Museum archaeology collection, DhRx-16:1166; rescued from bulldozed shellmidden.","function_display":"Not recorded; the object came from bulldozed midden spoil with no stratum, date, cord, wear analysis, or associated use evidence.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"departure bay","display_name":"Departure Bay whalebone bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/KEDDIE2023-001_dhrx16_1166_inner.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/KEDDIE2023-001_dhrx16_1166_inner_thumb.jpg","credit":"Photograph Grant Keddie, Royal BC Museum (DhRx-16:1166)","license":"Courtesy Grant Keddie; permission on file","source_page":"https://grantkeddie.com/2023/02/bullroarers-in-the-indigenous-collections-of-the-royal-b-c-museum/","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Inner face of the whalebone blade from Departure Bay.","also":[{"label":"Outer face, photographed above the tiny antler club (DcRu-74:337) Keddie shows for comparison","page":"assets/objects/KEDDIE2023-001_dhrx16_1166_outer_comparison.jpg","credit":"Photograph Grant Keddie, Royal BC Museum","license":"Courtesy Grant Keddie; permission on file"}]},"slug":"keddie2023-001-departure-bay-shellmidden-dhrx-16-snuneymuxw-island-halkomelem-coast-salish"}