{"id":"MUS2026-224","label":"Fortescue River ancestor-design bullroarer pair","people_or_site":"Fortescue River, Pilbara","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"Fortescue River, Pilbara, Western Australia","macroregion":"Australia","local_name":"","source_term":"bullroarer or tjuringa (churinga)","source_language":"English","object_description":"Two large wooden blades, each carved on one face with sacred designs representing a totemic ancestor.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"maa_e1915_20_4_5_fortescue_pair","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/492313/","page_or_plate":"MAA E 1915.20.4 and E 1915.20.5 (objects 492313, 492314)","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Anchor on the middle course of the Fortescue River, Pilbara, the only locality either record gives. The Fortescue runs some 700 km and no collecting camp, reach or crossing is named, so the point marks the river, not a site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"A sacred design representing a totemic ancestor fills one face of each large wooden blade.","pull_quote":"Large, wooden bullroarer, or tjuringa (churinga), with one face inscribed with sacred designs, which represent a totemic ancestor.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, catalogue description for accession E 1915.20.5","term_gloss":"","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, E 1915.20.4 and E 1915.20.5 (Fortescue River, Western Australia)","url":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/492313/","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013133721/https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/492313/"}],"source_citations":"Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, E 1915.20.4 and E 1915.20.5 (Fortescue River, Western Australia)","source_display":"Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, E 1915.20.4 and E 1915.20.5 (Fortescue River, Western Australia)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Two large wooden blades, each carved on one face with sacred designs representing a totemic ancestor.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"fortescue river","display_name":"Fortescue River ancestor-design bullroarer pair","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-205_mus2026-205-wereldmuseum.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-205_mus2026-205-wereldmuseum_thumb.jpg","alt":"A Desert-tribe cora from the inland Pilbara.","credit":"Wereldmuseum / Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen, RV-1207-18","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0; photograph rotated 180° for cord-end-left presentation.","source_page":"https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/689261","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A Desert-tribe cora from the inland Pilbara.","pool_id":"auto-MUS2026-205_mus2026-205-wereldmuseum"},"slug":"mus2026-224-fortescue-river-pilbara"}