{"id":"MUS2026-216","label":"Oxfordshire blade-and-stick pair","people_or_site":"English folk / Oxfordshire (no locality recorded)","country_current":"United Kingdom","historic_region":"Oxfordshire, England","macroregion":"Europe","local_name":"","source_term":"Bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Two carved wooden bullroarers bought together in July 1904. 1904.52.1 is a jagged-edged blade 293 x 70 mm that survives as a complete rig: the blade is slung by its string from a separate wooden stick, 452 mm long and 20 mm in diameter, so the whirler holds the stick and the blade orbits at the end of the line. 1904.52.2 is larger and plain in the record, 455 x 105 x 20 mm, carved, tied, perforated and burnt. 1904.52.1 is on display.","function_summary":"A boys' toy, like the English bullroarers Haddon described in 1898.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"prm_1904_52_1_2_oxfordshire","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39638","page_or_plate":"PRM 1904.52.1-.2 (prm-object-39638, prm-object-39639)","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Approximate county-level point for Oxfordshire; the records give 'England Oxfordshire' and no parish, village or use site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Bought for the museum in July 1904, from a man the register is not quite sure of: two bullroarers out of Oxfordshire, and no one wrote down the village. The smaller is the more complete — a jagged-edged blade the length of a forearm, its string still tied to a stick nearly half a metre long, so that a child could hold the stick and let the blade run its circle out at the end of the line. The larger is broader, plainer, and burnt as well as carved. Between them they are all the county kept.","pull_quote":"'Bullroarer' with jagged edge and string and stick attached.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Pitt Rivers Museum 1904.52.1, object description","term_gloss":"","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,"sources":[{"citation":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, 1904.52.1 and 1904.52.2","url":"https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39638","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260917174840/https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39638"}],"source_citations":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, 1904.52.1 and 1904.52.2","source_display":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, 1904.52.1 and 1904.52.2","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Two carved wooden bullroarers bought together in July 1904. 1904.52.1 is a jagged-edged blade 293 x 70 mm that survives as a complete rig: the blade is slung by its string from a separate wooden stick, 452 mm long and 20 mm in diameter, so the whirler holds the stick and the blade orbits at the end of the line. 1904.52.2 is larger and plain in the record, 455 x 105 x 20 mm, carved, tied, perforated and burnt. 1904.52.1 is on display.","function_display":"A boys' toy, like the English bullroarers Haddon described in 1898.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"english folk","display_name":"Oxfordshire blade-and-stick pair","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-216_mus2026-216-prm-1904-52-1.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-216_mus2026-216-prm-1904-52-1_thumb.jpg","credit":"Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, 1904.52.1","license":"Rights reserved (© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford); rehosted for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39638","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Oxfordshire serrated blade with cord and handle, Pitt Rivers Museum.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/hunt_fifty_2026_10_30/mus2026_216_30.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/hunt_fifty_2026_10_30/thumbs/mus2026_216_30.jpg","alt":"A wooden blade, cord and long dark handle.","credit":"Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, 1904.52.2","source_page":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39639","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The second Oxfordshire bullroarer in the Pitt Rivers collection, with its handle."}]},"slug":"mus2026-216-english-folk-oxfordshire-no-locality-recorded"}