{"id":"MUS2026-380","label":"Ambae wooden toy bullroarer","people_or_site":"Ambae (Aoba), Vanuatu","country_current":"Vanuatu","historic_region":"Ambae (Aoba), New Hebrides","macroregion":"Oceania / Vanuatu","local_name":"","source_term":"Schwirrholz; Spielzeug","source_language":"German / English","object_description":"Wooden bullroarer, 29 cm long; Museum der Kulturen Basel Vb 4697, Felix Speiser collection.","function_summary":"A toy.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"mkb_basel_vb4697","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://philhist-vanuatu.philhist.unibas.ch/en/objects/c6e5b47b-7927-4243-a350-19e26c8a015e/","page_or_plate":"Vb 4697","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Ambae Island centroid, GeoNames 2137516 (-15.3833, 167.8333; the Basel listing stores the same values with its latitude/longitude labels swapped); island-level anchor, not a findspot.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Swung for fun on Ambae, the great volcanic island the old charts called Aoba. In these northern islands of the New Hebrides, the missionary R. H. Codrington wrote, the bullroarer was a common plaything; across the channel on Maewo its name was tal-viv, \"a whirring string.\"","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","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":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, Vb 4697, \"Schwirrholz\" / \"Spielzeug\" (wood, L 29 cm; Ambae Island; collector Felix Speiser), in Island 84: (Re-)Connecting with Felix Speiser's Vanuatu collection (1910–1912), University of Basel; R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (Oxford, 1891), p. 342","url":"https://philhist-vanuatu.philhist.unibas.ch/en/objects/c6e5b47b-7927-4243-a350-19e26c8a015e/"}],"source_citations":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, Vb 4697, \"Schwirrholz\" / \"Spielzeug\" (wood, L 29 cm; Ambae Island; collector Felix Speiser), in Island 84: (Re-)Connecting with Felix Speiser's Vanuatu collection (1910–1912), University of Basel; R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (Oxford, 1891), p. 342","source_display":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, Vb 4697, \"Schwirrholz\" / \"Spielzeug\" (wood, L 29 cm; Ambae Island; collector Felix Speiser), in Island 84: (Re-)Connecting with Felix Speiser's Vanuatu collection (1910–1912), University of Basel; R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (Oxford, 1891), p. 342","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Wooden bullroarer, 29 cm long; Museum der Kulturen Basel Vb 4697, Felix Speiser collection.","function_display":"A toy.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"ambae","display_name":"Ambae wooden toy bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/bm_E_Oc1951-07-6.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/thumbs/bm_E_Oc1951-07-6_thumb.jpg","alt":"New Britain bullroarer with a white-filled carved face and geometric bands near one end; the long wooden blade tapers to a plain point.","credit":"© The Trustees of the British Museum (E/Oc1951-07-6)","license":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","source_page":"https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Oc1951-07-6","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A blade with a white-filled carved face and bands","pool_id":"auto-museum_harvest--bm_E_Oc1951-07-6","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-17"},"slug":"mus2026-380-ambae-aoba-vanuatu"}