{"id":"VILSTEREN1987-002","label":"Portegies snorrebot","people_or_site":"Portegies, Beverwijk","country_current":"Netherlands","historic_region":"North Holland / Beverwijk, Portegies","macroregion":"Europe / Low Countries","local_name":"snorrebot","source_term":"snorrebot (type I)","source_language":"Dutch","object_description":"A 17.6 cm blade of probable walrus ivory, rounded at one end and pierced near the other by a single large cord hole, found at Portegies in Beverwijk.","function_summary":"A children's humming toy: swung overhead on a cord, spinning on its long axis and changing pitch with the speed of the swing.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"vilsteren1987_beverwijk_portegies_cat84","source_type":"exhibition_catalog","source_url":"https://www.archeologiegorinchem.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Het_Benen_Tijdperk_gebruiksvoorwerpen_va.pdf","page_or_plate":"Van Vilsteren 1987, printed p. 52, cat. 84; Coll. Archeologische Werkgroep K.O.B., no inv. nr.","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Grote Kerk, Kerkstraat, in the historic centre of Beverwijk, used as a town-level anchor. 'Portegies' is the find place named in the catalogue and could not be resolved to a street, plot or excavation on any public gazetteer; this is not a findspot coordinate and should not be read as one.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"A child in seventeenth-century Beverwijk sent this ivory blade circling overhead on a cord until it spun on its own axis and hummed, faster swings raising the pitch. Dutch speakers call the type a snorrebot. It probably began as something more solemn, a ritual voice, before it sank to the nursery; by the time this blade was carved and pierced, Beverwijk knew it only as a plaything. Not everyone agrees: a 2024 survey of Dutch bone objects takes strips like this for bone folders, used to crease paper and cloth.","pull_quote":"Waarschijnlijk ontstaan als rituele objecten, maar bij ons verworden tot kinderspeelgoed zijn de snorrebotten.","pull_quote_translation":"Probably originating as ritual objects, but among us degenerated into children's toys, are the snorrebotten.","pull_quote_cite":"Van Vilsteren, Het Benen Tijdperk (1987), p. 52","term_gloss":"snorrebot: Dutch for a 'whirring bone'; here, an end-holed blade swung freely on a cord.","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":true,"flags":["toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"f_archaeology":true,"archaeology_kind":"object","date_display":"c. 1600–1700 AD","date_qualification":"Catalogue date XVII; no feature or layer published.","date_basis":"catalogue_attribution","date_confidence":"medium","date_citation":"vilsteren1987_beverwijk_portegies_cat84, Van Vilsteren 1987 p. 52 cat. 84","sources":[{"citation":"V. T. van Vilsteren, Het Benen Tijdperk: Gebruiksvoorwerpen van been, gewei, hoorn en ivoor 10.000 jaar geleden tot heden (1987), p. 52, cat. 84; Archeologische Werkgroep K.O.B. collection, without inventory number","url":"https://www.archeologiegorinchem.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Het_Benen_Tijdperk_gebruiksvoorwerpen_va.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20250218161916/https://www.archeologiegorinchem.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Het_Benen_Tijdperk_gebruiksvoorwerpen_va.pdf"},{"citation":"M. C. Dorst, Graven naar de Graaf: Archeologisch onderzoek naar het laatmiddeleeuwse, grafelijk leen Leeuwenburg/Mijnsherenherberg aan de Voorstraat 244, Dordrecht Ondergronds 5 (Gemeente Dordrecht, 2011), n. 180"},{"citation":"M. J. Rijkelijkhuizen, J. T. Zeiler and J. van Dijk, Osseous and Keratinous Objects from the Netherlands, Nederlandse Archeologische Rapporten 84 (2024), p. 143 n. 941","url":"https://collectie.huisvanhilde.nl/pdf/NAR%2084_Osseous_and_keratinous_objects.pdf"}],"source_citations":"V. T. van Vilsteren, Het Benen Tijdperk: Gebruiksvoorwerpen van been, gewei, hoorn en ivoor 10.000 jaar geleden tot heden (1987), p. 52, cat. 84; Archeologische Werkgroep K.O.B. collection, without inventory number; M. C. Dorst, Graven naar de Graaf: Archeologisch onderzoek naar het laatmiddeleeuwse, grafelijk leen Leeuwenburg/Mijnsherenherberg aan de Voorstraat 244, Dordrecht Ondergronds 5 (Gemeente Dordrecht, 2011), n. 180; M. J. Rijkelijkhuizen, J. T. Zeiler and J. van Dijk, Osseous and Keratinous Objects from the Netherlands, Nederlandse Archeologische Rapporten 84 (2024), p. 143 n. 941","source_display":"V. T. van Vilsteren, Het Benen Tijdperk: Gebruiksvoorwerpen van been, gewei, hoorn en ivoor 10.000 jaar geleden tot heden (1987), p. 52, cat. 84; Archeologische Werkgroep K.O.B. collection, without inventory number; M. C. Dorst, Graven naar de Graaf: Archeologisch onderzoek naar het laatmiddeleeuwse, grafelijk leen Leeuwenburg/Mijnsherenherberg aan de…","date_citation_display":"Van Vilsteren 1987 p. 52 cat. 84","object_display":"A 17.6 cm blade of probable walrus ivory, rounded at one end and pierced near the other by a single large cord hole, found at Portegies in Beverwijk.","function_display":"A children's humming toy: swung overhead on a cord, spinning on its long axis and changing pitch with the speed of the swing.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"portegies","display_name":"Portegies snorrebot","image":{"full":"assets/objects/VILSTEREN1987-002_portegies_cat84.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/VILSTEREN1987-002_portegies_cat84_thumb.jpg","credit":"V. T. van Vilsteren, Het Benen Tijdperk (1987), p. 52, cat. 84","license":"Open publication scan; reuse rights unstated","source_page":"https://www.archeologiegorinchem.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Het_Benen_Tijdperk_gebruiksvoorwerpen_va.pdf","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Van Vilsteren cat. 84: the one-hole ivory snorrebot from Portegies, Beverwijk."},"slug":"vilsteren1987-002-portegies-beverwijk"}