{"id":"MUS2026-356","label":"Arrow-headed blade with mirrored figure","people_or_site":"People unrecorded; Papua New Guinea","country_current":"Papua New Guinea","historic_region":"Papua New Guinea, locality unrecorded","macroregion":"Oceania / Sahul","local_name":"","source_term":"bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"A painted wooden blade 35.5 cm long and 8.5 cm across the middle, pointed at the lower end and cut into an arrowhead at the upper, with a red-and-white hook-like figure on its upper half and a single hole through the arrow for a long cord.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"nmm_object_02374","source_type":"museum_catalog_record","source_url":"https://emuseum.nmmusd.org/objects/5791/bullroarer","page_or_plate":"Object 02374; image dispatcher 14137/full","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"New Guinea centroid because the catalogue gives no locality.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Red and white pigment runs across the upper half of this blade in a hooked, mirror-image figure that the museum reads, cautiously, as two heads — eyes, bodies and all — turned away from each other; a red outline carries on down the lower half, and the back is left bare. The wood is 35.5 centimetres long and 8.5 wide at the middle, drawn to a point at the bottom and flaring into an arrowhead at the top, with one small hole bored through the arrow for a very long string. Where in Papua New Guinea it was made, and what it was made for, went unrecorded. It is now in the National Music Museum in South Dakota.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"No local term or cultural attribution recorded.","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,"sources":[{"citation":"National Music Museum, Vermillion, 02374 (purchased from H. M. Lissauer, 1978)","url":"https://emuseum.nmmusd.org/objects/5791/bullroarer"}],"source_citations":"National Music Museum, Vermillion, 02374 (purchased from H. M. Lissauer, 1978)","source_display":"National Music Museum, Vermillion, 02374 (purchased from H. M. Lissauer, 1978)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A painted wooden blade 35.5 cm long and 8.5 cm across the middle, pointed at the lower end and cut into an arrowhead at the upper, with a red-and-white hook-like figure on its upper half and a single hole through the arrow for a long cord.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"","display_name":"Arrow-headed blade with mirrored figure","image":{"full":"assets/objects/fresh_2026_09/NMM_02374_png_arrow_headed.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/fresh_2026_09/thumbs/NMM_02374_png_arrow_headed_thumb.jpg","alt":"A flat New Guinea blade with an angular arrowhead around its cord hole and a tapered opposite end; red paired hooks and a red arrow are outlined in white on the dark face.","credit":"National Music Museum, University of South Dakota (NMM 02374)","license":"No rights statement published (National Music Museum eMuseum) — rehosted for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://emuseum.nmmusd.org/objects/5791/bullroarer","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"A 35.5 cm New Guinea blade, arrow-headed above and pointed below, painted with a mirrored red-and-white hook figure.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/fresh_2026_09/NMM_02374_png_arrow_headed_3.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/fresh_2026_09/thumbs/NMM_02374_png_arrow_headed_3_thumb.jpg","alt":"Close view of the pointed wooden end, with a cord through its hole and two red, white-outlined hook-shaped figures painted on the dark surface.","credit":"National Music Museum, University of South Dakota (NMM 02374)","license":"No rights statement published (National Music Museum eMuseum) — rehosted for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://emuseum.nmmusd.org/objects/5791/bullroarer","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Detail of the arrow head, perforation, cord knot and painted hook figures."},{"full":"assets/objects/fresh_2026_09/NMM_02374_png_arrow_headed_2.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/fresh_2026_09/thumbs/NMM_02374_png_arrow_headed_2_thumb.jpg","credit":"National Music Museum, University of South Dakota (NMM 02374)","license":"No rights statement published (National Music Museum eMuseum) — rehosted for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://emuseum.nmmusd.org/objects/5791/bullroarer","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Reverse face, plain dark wood."}]},"slug":"mus2026-356-people-unrecorded-papua-new-guinea"}