{"id":"NAMER-006","label":"Bowers Cave cache of twelve roarers","people_or_site":"Castaic Cave, Los Angeles County, California (Chumash)","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"California / Los Angeles County / Castaic Cave","macroregion":"North America / California","local_name":"","source_term":"bull roarers","source_language":"English","object_description":"Bowers Cave cache of thin, notched wooden bullroarers with end-holes; twelve complete and two fragmentary examples are reported, one retaining a 135 cm five-strand braided cord.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"FEDERAL_REGISTER_2026_08763","source_type":"federal_register_notice","source_url":"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/05/05/2026-08763/notice-of-inventory-completion-peabody-museum-of-archaeology-and-ethnology-harvard-university","page_or_plate":"Heizer 1960:5-9; Elsasser and Heizer 1963:22-24, pl. 4c-d; Federal Register 2026-08763","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Representative Castaic Cave / Castaic area anchor; not a disclosed exact cave coordinate.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Bowers Cave held a cache of thin wooden roarers, their edges cut with teeth and their ends drilled for cord. Twelve complete examples and two fragments were reported; one still carried a five-strand braided cord 135 centimetres long. Collected by Stephen Bowers in 1885 among feather headdresses, clubs, baskets and worked shell, they survived as part of a funerary assemblage now affiliated under NAGPRA with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians.","pull_quote":"The one lot of funerary objects is one lot of baskets and basket fragments, bull roarers, clubs, feather headdresses and headbands, organic material, quartz, stone implements, worked and unworked faunal remains, wooden tools, and worked shell.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Federal Register, Notice of Inventory Completion: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, doc. 2026-08763 (May 5, 2026)","term_gloss":"","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":["death_rebirth"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"f_archaeology":true,"archaeology_kind":"object","date_display":"c. AD 1150–1800","date_qualification":"Broad cache horizon; objects not directly dated.","date_basis":"collection_horizon","date_confidence":"low","date_citation":"HEIZER1960, pp. 5–9; Elsasser and Heizer 1963 pp. 1–4 and 22–24; Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Chumash Life timeline; FEDERAL_REGISTER_2026_08763","sources":[{"citation":"Robert F. Heizer, 'Some Prehistoric Bullroarers from California Caves' (1960), pp. 5-9; Albert B. Elsasser and Robert F. Heizer, The Archaeology of Bowers Cave (1963), pp. 22-24, pl. 4c-d; Federal Register notice 2026-08763 (Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University)","url":"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/05/05/2026-08763/notice-of-inventory-completion-peabody-museum-of-archaeology-and-ethnology-harvard-university","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260505065811/https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/05/05/2026-08763/notice-of-inventory-completion-peabody-museum-of-archaeology-and-ethnology-harvard-university"}],"source_citations":"Robert F. Heizer, 'Some Prehistoric Bullroarers from California Caves' (1960), pp. 5-9; Albert B. Elsasser and Robert F. Heizer, The Archaeology of Bowers Cave (1963), pp. 22-24, pl. 4c-d; Federal Register notice 2026-08763 (Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University)","source_display":"Robert F. Heizer, 'Some Prehistoric Bullroarers from California Caves' (1960), pp. 5-9; Albert B. Elsasser and Robert F. Heizer, The Archaeology of Bowers Cave (1963), pp. 22-24, pl. 4c-d; Federal Register notice 2026-08763 (Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University)","date_citation_display":"Heizer 1960, pp. 5–9; Elsasser and Heizer 1963 pp. 1–4 and 22–24; Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Chumash Life timeline; Federal Register 2026 08763","object_display":"Bowers Cave cache of thin, notched wooden bullroarers with end-holes; twelve complete and two fragmentary examples are reported, one retaining a 135 cm five-strand braided cord.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"castaic cave","display_name":"Bowers Cave cache of twelve roarers","image":{"full":"assets/objects/NAMER-006_namer-006-bowers-corded-blade.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/NAMER-006_namer-006-bowers-corded-blade_thumb.jpg","credit":"Peabody Museum, Harvard / Robert F. Heizer, Some Prehistoric Bullroarers from California Caves, 1960, plate 1c","license":"Rights reserved; no open reuse license located. Peabody Museum photograph reproduced by UC Berkeley; proposed for non-commercial research.","source_page":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucas050-015.pdf","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Bowers Cave notched wooden bullroarer with surviving braided cord, Heizer 1960, pl. 1c."},"slug":"namer-006-castaic-cave-los-angeles-county-california-chumash"}