{"id":"MUS2026-193","label":"Clavering Island Site D blade","people_or_site":"Tunumiit, Site D, Clavering Island, Northeast Greenland","country_current":"Greenland","historic_region":"Northeast Greenland / Clavering Island","macroregion":"North America / Arctic","local_name":"","source_term":"","source_language":"English","object_description":"Carved, drilled wooden bullroarer, probably AD 1600-1800; excavated at Site D on Clavering Island.","function_summary":"Not recorded — an archaeological find.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"nmai_17_9591_clavering_site_d","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_192245","page_or_plate":"NMAI catalog 17/9591","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Representative point on Clavering Island, north-east Greenland, for excavation Site D; NMAI gives no coordinates. Placed a short distance from the Site C point so the two excavation sites can be seen apart.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"The Ford-Bartlett expedition put Junius Bird ashore on Clavering Island in 1930, and from the frozen ground of the place he labelled Site D came a wooden bullroarer, carved and drilled for its cord — left, probably, by the Tunumiit who lived on this coast some time between 1600 and 1800. It was not alone: another blade came out of a stone-house ruin at Site C nearby. East Greenland's dry cold keeps wood for centuries, and with it the evidence that on the remotest inhabited coast of the Arctic, someone was swinging a roarer.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","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":"c. 1600–1800 AD","date_qualification":"Museum creation-date estimate; object not directly dated.","date_basis":"museum_field","date_confidence":"medium","date_citation":"NMAI_192245, NMAI object 17/9591","sources":[{"citation":"National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian, catalogue no. 17/9591: Bullroarer, wood, carved and drilled; Site D, Clavering Island, Northeast Greenland; excavated by Junius Bird, 1930, Ford-Bartlett East Greenland Expedition","url":"https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_192245","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20250611235958/https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_192245"}],"source_citations":"National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian, catalogue no. 17/9591: Bullroarer, wood, carved and drilled; Site D, Clavering Island, Northeast Greenland; excavated by Junius Bird, 1930, Ford-Bartlett East Greenland Expedition","source_display":"National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian, catalogue no. 17/9591: Bullroarer, wood, carved and drilled; Site D, Clavering Island, Northeast Greenland; excavated by Junius Bird, 1930, Ford-Bartlett East Greenland Expedition","date_citation_display":"NMAI object 17/9591","object_display":"Carved, drilled wooden bullroarer, probably AD 1600-1800; excavated at Site D on Clavering Island.","function_display":"Not recorded — an archaeological find.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"tunumiit","display_name":"Clavering Island Site D blade","image":{"full":"assets/objects/review_2026_07_18/MUS2026-193_nmai_17_9591.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/review_2026_07_18/thumbs/MUS2026-193_nmai_17_9591_thumb.jpg","alt":"The Site D fragment from Clavering Island, 1930: a weathered wooden piece with a waisted end and accession 17/9591 inked on it, beside a centimeter scale.","credit":"National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian (17/9591)","license":"Usage Conditions Apply (NMAI); metadata CC0","source_page":"https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_192245","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The Site D fragment, accession 17/9591 inked across the waisted blade end; two more fragments share the tray (Clavering Island, 1930)."},"slug":"mus2026-193-probably-tunumiit-attributed-site-d-clavering-island-northeast-greenland"}