{"id":"SAFR-006","label":"Lendy 1 Zimbabwe rock-art bullroarer","people_or_site":"Lendy 1 rock-art site","country_current":"Zimbabwe","historic_region":"Mashonaland East / Marondera","macroregion":"Africa / Southern Africa","local_name":"","source_term":"crescent-shaped possible bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Zimbabwe rock-art panel copied by Corona Thornycroft; Kumbani and Diaz-Andreu describe the far-right figure as swinging a possible bullroarer.","function_summary":"Possible rock-art depiction of a sound-producing crescent object; source compares it to bullroarer depictions elsewhere in southern Africa.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"kumbani_diazandreu2025_zimbabwe_music","source_type":"archaeological_report","source_url":"https://diposit.ub.edu/bitstreams/2cb806a9-ab8a-43b7-a22c-dc58695903e6/download","page_or_plate":"Azania 60(1):17, 24, 30; fig. 13","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"representative coordinate; archaeological/ethnographic source does not warrant a precise ritual locality","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"On a rock-art panel at Lendy 1, near Marondera in Mashonaland East, a figure at the far right of the scene swings a crescent-shaped object above his head — read by Joshua Kumbani and Margarita Díaz-Andreu as a possible bullroarer. The panel is known from a copy made by Corona Thornycroft, held in the Rock Art Research Institute's archive in Johannesburg and divided into three parts: small figures that by their size could be children, two recumbent dancers who appear to float above the ground as if in trance, a central therianthrope, a man holding what looks like a rattle, and finally the man with the crescent. The identification rests on shape alone, and the authors are explicit that crescent readings in rock art \"may be subject to speculation\"; they note the much clearer comparison at Doring River in South Africa's Western Cape, where eight figures are shown swinging bullroarers. Paul Garlake had earlier called such crescent-shaped objects possible musical instruments, \"possibly one that 'roars' or sounds when it is rotated rapidly.\"","pull_quote":"From Lendy 1 in Marondera, Mashonaland East … The third part of the recording depicts what appears to be a man holding a bullroarer.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Kumbani and Díaz-Andreu 2025, Azania 60(1):16","term_gloss":"","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":true,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"f_archaeology":true,"archaeology_kind":"rock_art","date_display":"Probably more than 2,000 years ago","date_qualification":"Regional tradition; motif undated.","date_basis":"regional_only","date_confidence":"low","date_citation":"kumbani_diazandreu2025_zimbabwe_music, Azania 60(1) pp. 5–6, 16–17, 24 fig. 13; British Museum, Zimbabwe rock-art chronology","sources":[{"citation":"Joshua Kumbani and Margarita Díaz-Andreu, \"The art of music. The representation of musical instruments in the rock art of Zimbabwe,\" Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 60(1) (2025): 4-34, pp. 16-17, 24, 30, fig. 13","url":"https://diposit.ub.edu/bitstreams/2cb806a9-ab8a-43b7-a22c-dc58695903e6/download","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013025747/https://diposit.ub.edu/bitstreams/2cb806a9-ab8a-43b7-a22c-dc58695903e6/download"},{"citation":"Garlake (1987a; 1995), cited in Kumbani and Díaz-Andreu (2025)"},{"citation":"SARADA / Rock Art Research Institute, Corona Thornycroft copy RARI CT 01 190HC"}],"source_citations":"Joshua Kumbani and Margarita Díaz-Andreu, \"The art of music. The representation of musical instruments in the rock art of Zimbabwe,\" Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 60(1) (2025): 4-34, pp. 16-17, 24, 30, fig. 13; Garlake (1987a; 1995), cited in Kumbani and Díaz-Andreu (2025); SARADA / Rock Art Research Institute, Corona Thornycroft copy RARI CT 01 190HC","source_display":"Joshua Kumbani and Margarita Díaz-Andreu, \"The art of music. The representation of musical instruments in the rock art of Zimbabwe,\" Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 60(1) (2025): 4-34, pp. 16-17, 24, 30, fig. 13; Garlake (1987a; 1995), cited in Kumbani and Díaz-Andreu (2025); SARADA / Rock Art Research Institute, Corona Thornycroft copy RARI CT…","date_citation_display":"Azania 60(1) pp. 5–6, 16–17, 24 fig. 13; British Museum, Zimbabwe rock-art chronology","object_display":"Zimbabwe rock-art panel copied by Corona Thornycroft; Kumbani and Diaz-Andreu describe the far-right figure as swinging a possible bullroarer.","function_display":"Possible rock-art depiction of a sound-producing crescent object; source compares it to bullroarer depictions elsewhere in southern Africa.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"lendy rock","display_name":"Lendy 1 Zimbabwe rock-art bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/SAFR-006.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SAFR-006_thumb.jpg","alt":"Lendy 1 rock-art panel at Marondera, Zimbabwe: dark human and animal figures, some with long projecting objects, cluster diagonally across a pale field.","credit":"L. Kumbani & M. Díaz-Andreu, rock art & music in Zimbabwe (2025), Fig. 13 (Lendy 1, Marondera)","license":"Scholarly figure; non-commercial research use","source_page":"https://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/handle/2445/","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Lendy 1 (Marondera, Zimbabwe) rock-art panel."},"slug":"safr-006-lendy-1-rock-art-site"}