{"id":"MUS2026-210","label":"West Papuan clay-filled bullroarer trio","people_or_site":"West Papua","country_current":"Indonesia / Papua New Guinea (catalogue gives both)","historic_region":"West Papua (catalogue provenance \"Indonesia / Papua New Guinea, West Papua\", all elements flagged uncertain)","macroregion":"Oceania / New Guinea","local_name":"","source_term":"Bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Three wooden bullroarers. The largest is 745 x 130 mm, carved and incised with clay in the worked surfaces; no perforation, notch, tie or cord is recorded for it, and no suspension survives. A second, 317 x 47 mm, has a terminal perforation ringed by a concentric diamond pattern, a forked top and a fibre tie. A third, 445 x 54 mm, has notches above a slight shoulder at the terminal end, a forked top and a fibre tie. On .2 and .3 the surviving ties show single-end free-air rigging.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"prm_1902_68_west_papua_webster","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39720","page_or_plate":"PRM catalogue records 1902.68.1, 1902.68.2 and 1902.68.3 with photographs PRM_RS486213, PRM_RS374187 and PRM_RS374292","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Broad landmass anchor for western New Guinea, standing in for the museum's uncertain \"West Papua\" region tag. The catalogue also names Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, which do not agree with each other; this point represents the western half of the island and no smaller unit.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Three wooden bullroarers survive from West Papua as a single dealer's lot, and the largest is remarkable: a carved board nearly seventy-five centimetres long, its incised patterns packed with pale clay, though no perforation or tie was ever recorded for it. Its two smaller companions keep their fibre ties — one blade ringed with a concentric diamond around its hole, the other notched above a shoulder, both ending in a forked top. No maker, people, or village travelled with the group; only the objects and the carving survive.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":true,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, 1902.68.1-3 (purchased from W. D. Webster, 1902)","url":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39720","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260917174840/https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39720"}],"source_citations":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, 1902.68.1-3 (purchased from W. D. Webster, 1902)","source_display":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, 1902.68.1-3 (purchased from W. D. Webster, 1902)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Three wooden bullroarers. The largest is 745 x 130 mm, carved and incised with clay in the worked surfaces; no perforation, notch, tie or cord is recorded for it, and no suspension survives. A second, 317 x 47 mm, has a terminal perforation ringed by a concentric diamond pattern, a forked top and a fibre tie. A third, 445 x 54 mm, has notches above a slight shoulder at the terminal end, a forked top and a fibre tie. On .2 and .3 the surviving ties show single-end free-air rigging.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"west papua","display_name":"West Papuan clay-filled bullroarer trio","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-210_prm_1902-68-1.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-210_prm_1902-68-1_thumb.jpg","alt":"A 74.5 cm West Papuan wooden bullroarer with pale clay-filled scrollwork and a face-like motif across one half, tapering to a plain point.","credit":"Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, accession 1902.68.1","license":"PRM Collections Online terms (noncommercial educational web use with credit)","source_page":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39720","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"A carved, clay-filled West Papuan bullroarer, 74.5 cm long.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-210_prm_1902-68-2.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-210_prm_1902-68-2_thumb.jpg","credit":"Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, accession 1902.68.2","license":"PRM Collections Online terms (noncommercial educational web use with credit)","source_page":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39721","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"A slender blade with its fibre tie at the forked end."},{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-210_prm_1902-68-3.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-210_prm_1902-68-3_thumb.jpg","alt":"Dark slender wooden blade tapering to a point, with a forked notched attachment and a short fibre tie.","credit":"Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, accession 1902.68.3","license":"PRM Collections Online terms (noncommercial educational web use with credit)","source_page":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39722","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"A slender blade with a notched attachment and fibre tie."}]},"slug":"mus2026-210-west-papua-people-unknown"}