{"id":"MUS2026-138","label":"Mesa Verde Ruin 14 bone bullroarer","people_or_site":"Ancestral Pueblo / Ruin 14","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Wetherill Mesa, Mesa Verde, Colorado","macroregion":"North America / Southwest","local_name":"","source_term":"Suhistuspuu","source_language":"Finnish and English","object_description":"Elongated deer metapodial bone blade, 21.8 x 3.4 cm: narrow and tapered, with a broad smoothed face, a single suspension hole drilled near the wide end, four transverse engraved lines, and a reverse that follows the bone's natural channel; National Museum of Finland VK4834:411.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"FINNA_VK4834_411","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://www.finna.fi/Record/museovirasto.17F4ECF5450D702E586AA5B520CF263A","page_or_plate":"Finna VK4834:411; Nordenskiöld 1893 p. 99 and Plate XLI:7","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Representative Wetherill Mesa / Ruin 14 anchor; not a published object-level excavation coordinate.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Nordenskiöld catalogued this tapered deer-bone blade from a Wetherill Mesa cliff dwelling as a scraper; a later hand overruled him: bullroarer, probably not a scraper. One cord-hole is drilled through its smoothed, worn wide end. Among the Hopi who descend from these cliff builders, warriors of the Snake society still whirl the bullroarer, the tovokinpi, around the kivas before dawn to voice the thunder of the July monsoon and pull rain onto the corn. Whether this seven-hundred-year-old bone ever sang that note, no cord survives to say.","pull_quote":"A string is attached to the hole and when the object is swung from the string, it makes a specific sound.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"National Museum of Finland / Finna, VK4834:411.","term_gloss":"suhistuspuu: Finnish for bullroarer.","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":false,"flags":["snake"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":true,"f_archaeology":true,"archaeology_kind":"object","date_display":"c. 1150–1300 AD","date_qualification":"Classic Pueblo III horizon; object undated.","date_basis":"museum_archaeological_context","date_confidence":"high","date_citation":"FINNA_VK4834_411, Finna VK4834:411; Nordenskiöld 1893 p. 99 and Plate XLI:7","sources":[{"citation":"National Museum of Finland, VK4834:411 (Long Canyon, Wetherill Mesa); G. Nordenskiöld, The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde (1893), p. 99, pl. XLI:7","url":"https://www.finna.fi/Record/museovirasto.17F4ECF5450D702E586AA5B520CF263A","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013021554/https://www.finna.fi/Record/museovirasto.17F4ECF5450D702E586AA5B520CF263A"}],"source_citations":"National Museum of Finland, VK4834:411 (Long Canyon, Wetherill Mesa); G. Nordenskiöld, The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde (1893), p. 99, pl. XLI:7","source_display":"National Museum of Finland, VK4834:411 (Long Canyon, Wetherill Mesa); G. Nordenskiöld, The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde (1893), p. 99, pl. XLI:7","date_citation_display":"Finna VK4834:411; Nordenskiöld 1893 p. 99 and Plate XLI:7","object_display":"Elongated deer metapodial bone blade, 21.8 x 3.4 cm: narrow and tapered, with a broad smoothed face, a single suspension hole drilled near the wide end, four transverse engraved lines, and a reverse that follows the bone's natural channel; National Museum of Finland VK4834:411.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"ancestral pueblo","display_name":"Mesa Verde Ruin 14 bone bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/finna_vk4834_411.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/thumbs/finna_vk4834_411_thumb.jpg","alt":"Mesa Verde Ruin 14 deer-bone bullroarer with terminal hole and incised lines.","credit":"Finnish Heritage Agency / National Museum of Finland (VK4834:411), via Finna","license":"CC BY 4.0","source_page":"https://www.finna.fi/Record/museovirasto.17F4ECF5450D702E586AA5B520CF263A","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Ruin 14 deer-bone blade with a terminal hole and incised lines.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/finna_vk4834_411_reverse.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/review_2026_10_03/MUS2026-138_also-1_thumb.jpg","credit":"Finnish Heritage Agency / National Museum of Finland (VK4834:411), via Finna","license":"CC BY 4.0","source_page":"https://www.finna.fi/Record/museovirasto.17F4ECF5450D702E586AA5B520CF263A","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Reverse of the Ruin 14 deer-bone blade, with a marrow channel and terminal hole."}]},"slug":"mus2026-138-ancestral-pueblo-ruin-14"}