{"id":"MATHIASSEN1927-001","label":"Malerualik miniature antler bullroarer","people_or_site":"Malerualik early Thule settlement, house ruin 13","country_current":"Canada","historic_region":"King William Island (Qikiqtaq) / Kitikmeot, Nunavut","macroregion":"North America / Arctic","local_name":"","source_term":"bull roarer / Svirrer","source_language":"English / Danish","object_description":"Very small, carefully made antler blade, 6.9 x 0.7 cm, quite flat and pointed, notched along the edges, with a small knob at the butt end; Danish National Museum P12.171. Mathiassen calls it a miniature or toy specimen.","function_summary":"A toy: Mathiassen publishes it as a miniature specimen of the bull roarer widely used among Eskimo peoples.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"mathiassen1927_malerualik_p12_171","source_type":"archaeological_monograph","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Arch%C3%A6ology_of_the_Central_Eskimos.djvu/502","page_or_plate":"Mathiassen 1927, printed p. 319 and Plate 84 fig. 9; Nationalmuseet P12.171","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Malerualik River, the official Inuktitut Canadian Geographical Name on the south coast of King William Island (Canadian Geographical Names Database, decision 1961-03-02, 68.55 N / 97.30 W); a place-name anchor for the settlement the site is named after, not a surveyed coordinate for the settlement, house ruin 13, or the object. Mathiassen's own report gives no coordinate; the excavated houses are described as up to 25 m above sea level and roughly 400 m inland.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"House ruin 13 at Malerualik, on the south coast of King William Island, gave up a sliver of antler less than seven centimetres long and seven millimetres wide — flat, pointed, nicked along both edges, with a small knob at the butt where a cord would be tied. Therkel Mathiassen had no doubt what he was holding: a miniature, a toy version of the bullroarer used across the Inuit world, made small and made carefully. The house supplies only a broad Thule context, roughly AD 1000–1400; the object itself is not dated. Copenhagen still files it under a single Danish word: Svirrer, whirrer.","pull_quote":"Pl. 84.9 (P 12.171) is a miniature specimen (toy) of the bull roarer so widely used among natives and many present-day Eskimo tribes; this small, carefully made specimen is of antler and quite flat.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Mathiassen 1927:319","term_gloss":"Svirrer: Danish 'whirrer', the National Museum of Denmark's catalogue term for a bullroarer.","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,"f_archaeology":true,"archaeology_kind":"object","date_display":"c. AD 1000–1400","date_qualification":"Site-level Thule context only; older literature treated Malerualik as early Thule c. AD 1000–1200, while later syntheses place widespread Classic Thule closer to c. AD 1200–1400; object not directly dated.","date_basis":"cultural_phase","date_confidence":"low","date_citation":"mathiassen1927_malerualik_p12_171, Mathiassen 1927 pp. 319–321 and pl. 84 fig. 9; Savelle 1986 p. 319; Whitridge 2001 p. 5","sources":[{"citation":"Therkel Mathiassen, Archaeology of the Central Eskimos I, Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-24, vol. IV.1 (Copenhagen, 1927), p. 319, plate 84 fig. 9","url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Arch%C3%A6ology_of_the_Central_Eskimos.djvu/502","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013032344/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Arch%C3%A6ology_of_the_Central_Eskimos.djvu/502"},{"citation":"Nationalmuseet, Etnografisk Samling, object P12.171 (225814), \"Svirrer\"","url":"https://samlinger.natmus.dk/es/object/225814","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013032629/https://samlinger.natmus.dk/es/object/225814"}],"source_citations":"Therkel Mathiassen, Archaeology of the Central Eskimos I, Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-24, vol. IV.1 (Copenhagen, 1927), p. 319, plate 84 fig. 9; Nationalmuseet, Etnografisk Samling, object P12.171 (225814), \"Svirrer\"","source_display":"Therkel Mathiassen, Archaeology of the Central Eskimos I, Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-24, vol. IV.1 (Copenhagen, 1927), p. 319, plate 84 fig. 9; Nationalmuseet, Etnografisk Samling, object P12.171 (225814), \"Svirrer\"","date_citation_display":"Mathiassen 1927 pp. 319–321 and pl. 84 fig. 9; Savelle 1986 p. 319; Whitridge 2001 p. 5","object_display":"Very small, carefully made antler blade, 6.9 x 0.7 cm, quite flat and pointed, notched along the edges, with a small knob at the butt end; Danish National Museum P12.171. Mathiassen calls it a miniature or toy specimen.","function_display":"A toy: Mathiassen publishes it as a miniature specimen of the bull roarer widely used among Eskimo peoples.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"malerualik early","display_name":"Malerualik miniature antler bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MATHIASSEN1927-001_malerualik_p12-171_pl84_9.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MATHIASSEN1927-001_malerualik_p12-171_pl84_9_thumb.jpg","credit":"Therkel Mathiassen, Archaeology of the Central Eskimos I (1927), plate 84 fig. 9","license":"Public domain","source_page":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Arch%C3%A6ology_of_the_Central_Eskimos.djvu/502","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Mathiassen’s exact Plate 84 fig. 9 drawing of miniature P12.171."},"slug":"mathiassen1927-001-malerualik-early-thule-settlement-house-ruin-13"}