{"id":"SAYLES1941-001","label":"Rustler Hills infant-burial bull-roarer","people_or_site":"Hueco-phase cave dwellers, Rustler Hills sink-hole shelter","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Trans-Pecos Texas (Rustler Hills, Culberson County)","macroregion":"North America / Southwest","local_name":"","source_term":"","source_language":"","object_description":"Thin curved wooden blade, 42 cm, pointed at one end and squared at the other, all edges bevelled, rich brown, with five perforations; recovered snapped in two, the halves laid side by side in the burial; no cord survives.","function_summary":"A grave offering in an infant's basket burial made before c. 1100 AD, among the costly objects Sayles read as a mourning sacrifice.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"review2026","source_type":"archaeological_report","source_url":"https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1013875/m2/1/high_res_d/Volumes_13-14_1941-1942_Entire_Volume.pdf","page_or_plate":"pp. 77-87; Plate 14 no. 4 (PDF p. 73); caption p. 82","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Rustler Hills range anchor, 'about 40 miles northwest of Toyah' per Sayles; the exact gypsum sink-hole shelter was never published.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Before about 1100 AD, in a gypsum sink-hole shelter in the Rustler Hills, an infant was buried in a carrying basket: laid on a pad of down over a squirrel skin, wrapped in rabbit fur, and sent off with Pacific olivella shells, two prayer sticks, cotton yarn, a hank of human hair — and a thin curved wooden blade, 42 cm long, snapped in two, the halves laid side by side. E. B. Sayles, excavating for Gila Pueblo, read the blade as a bull-roarer and counted it, with the shells and the cotton, among the grave's ties to the Southwest.","pull_quote":"Thin piece of wood slightly curved, pointed at one end, squared at the other, with five perforations; all edges bevelled; rich brown color. Length, 42 cm.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Sayles 1941, p. 82 (Plate 14 caption)","term_gloss":"","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":true,"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":"Before c. 1100 AD","date_qualification":"Burial predates overlying pottery estimated c. 1100–1300 AD; object not directly dated.","date_basis":"stratigraphic","date_confidence":"low","date_citation":"sayles1941_infant_burial, pp. 81–82 and pl. 14 no. 4","sources":[{"citation":"E. B. Sayles, 'Infant Burial in Carrying Basket', Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 13 (1941), pp. 77-87; object at p. 82 (Plate 14 caption, no. 4), burial inventory p. 80, western-connections discussion p. 85","url":"https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1013875/m2/1/high_res_d/Volumes_13-14_1941-1942_Entire_Volume.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20220623094025/https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1013875/m2/1/high_res_d/Volumes_13-14_1941-1942_Entire_Volume.pdf"}],"source_citations":"E. B. Sayles, 'Infant Burial in Carrying Basket', Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 13 (1941), pp. 77-87; object at p. 82 (Plate 14 caption, no. 4), burial inventory p. 80, western-connections discussion p. 85","source_display":"E. B. Sayles, 'Infant Burial in Carrying Basket', Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 13 (1941), pp. 77-87; object at p. 82 (Plate 14 caption, no. 4), burial inventory p. 80, western-connections discussion p. 85","date_citation_display":"Sayles 1941 Infant Burial, pp. 81–82 and pl. 14 no. 4","object_display":"Thin curved wooden blade, 42 cm, pointed at one end and squared at the other, all edges bevelled, rich brown, with five perforations; recovered snapped in two, the halves laid side by side in the burial; no cord survives.","function_display":"A grave offering in an infant's basket burial made before c. 1100 AD, among the costly objects Sayles read as a mourning sacrifice.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"hueco phase","display_name":"Rustler Hills infant-burial bull-roarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/SAYLES1941-001_plate14_no4.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SAYLES1941-001_plate14_no4_thumb.jpg","alt":"Sayles’s curved 42 cm blade labeled Bull-roarer (?), from an infant burial, Plate 14 no. 4.","credit":"E. B. Sayles, Bulletin of the Texas Archeological and Paleontological Society 13 (1941), Plate 14 no. 4 — via UNT Portal to Texas History","license":"Published 1941 (US); no copyright renewal found — believed public domain (unconfirmed)","source_page":"https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1013875/","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The 42 cm blade Sayles labeled 'Bull-roarer (?)', from the infant burial — Plate 14 no. 4.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/SAYLES1941-001_plate14_full.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SAYLES1941-001_plate14_full_thumb.jpg","credit":"E. B. Sayles, BTAPS 13 (1941), Plate 14 — via UNT Portal to Texas History","license":"Published 1941 (US); no copyright renewal found — believed public domain (unconfirmed)","source_page":"https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1013875/","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The full burial inventory: basket, skins, cordage, shells, prayer sticks — the blade is no. 4."}]},"slug":"sayles1941-001-hueco-phase-cave-dwellers-rustler-hills-sink-hole-shelter"}