{"id":"VOGELSANG2011-001","label":"Oruwanje incised shale blade","people_or_site":"Oruwanje 95/1 rockshelter","country_current":"Namibia","historic_region":"Kaokoland / northern Namibia","macroregion":"Africa / Southern Africa","local_name":"","source_term":"shale pendant","source_language":"English","object_description":"Incised shale blade, 86 × 26 × 5 mm, with polished edges and a worn 3 mm terminal perforation.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"vogelsang_eichhorn2011_oruwanje","source_type":"academic_publication","source_url":"https://the-eis.com/elibrary/sites/default/files/downloads/literature/Under%20the%20Mopane%20Tree_Holocene%20settlement%20in%20northern%20Namibia.pdf","page_or_plate":"Fig31.3 p63; descriptionp65; phase chronologypp70–71; site mapFig17 p51","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Approximate site position read from original Fig17 p51; map groups Oruwanje95/1 and95/2, about1km precision.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"A slip of polished shale, 86 mm long and only 5 mm thick, tapers from a squared, pierced end to a rounded tip. The hole is large for so small a blade, 3 mm across, and worn; the face is scored with fine incisions. A companion from the same layer cracked while it was being drilled and was never strung. Blades like these belong to northern Namibia's first potters, probably hunter-gatherers who had taken up the craft; no bones of herd animals have yet been found in the area. This one was left about 2,000 years ago in a west-facing rockshelter above a broad basin, in mopane woodland much like today's, a short walk from a waterhole.\n\nIts exact twin is a bone blade from Matjes River on the southern Cape, 88 by 27 by 5 millimetres with the same 3 mm hole, long filed as a pendant. That one is worn along the sides of its hole, where a spinning cord pulls, not at the top, where a hanging one does, and a copy roars readily. The nearest bullroarers in living memory belong to the Uukwaluudhi of Owamboland, some 150 km east and many centuries later, whose old rain-callers whirled flat slips of wood, six inches by two, as the voices of the Big Birds.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"f_archaeology":true,"archaeology_kind":"object","date_display":"290 BC–AD 90","date_qualification":"Early Ceramic Phase 4.","date_basis":"stratigraphic","date_confidence":"medium","date_citation":"Vogelsang/Eichhorn2011 pp63,70–71","sources":[{"citation":"Ralf Vogelsang and Barbara Eichhorn, Under the Mopane Tree: Holocene Settlement in Northern Namibia, Africa Praehistorica24(2011), pp51–55,61–65,70–71, fig31","url":"https://the-eis.com/elibrary/sites/default/files/downloads/literature/Under%20the%20Mopane%20Tree_Holocene%20settlement%20in%20northern%20Namibia.pdf"},{"citation":"Märit Salokoski, How Kings Are Made – How Kingship Changes (University of Helsinki, 2006), pp. 229–231","url":"https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/23512","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260216103545/https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/23512"},{"citation":"Kumbani, J., Bradfield, J., Rusch, N. and Wurz, S. 2019. A functional investigation of southern Cape Later Stone Age artefacts that resemble bullroarers. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 24: 693–711.","url":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.02.021"}],"source_citations":"Ralf Vogelsang and Barbara Eichhorn, Under the Mopane Tree: Holocene Settlement in Northern Namibia, Africa Praehistorica24(2011), pp51–55,61–65,70–71, fig31; Märit Salokoski, How Kings Are Made – How Kingship Changes (University of Helsinki, 2006), pp. 229–231; Kumbani, J., Bradfield, J., Rusch, N. and Wurz, S. 2019. A functional investigation of southern Cape Later Stone Age artefacts that resemble bullroarers. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 24: 693–711.","source_display":"Ralf Vogelsang and Barbara Eichhorn, Under the Mopane Tree: Holocene Settlement in Northern Namibia, Africa Praehistorica24(2011), pp51–55,61–65,70–71, fig31; Märit Salokoski, How Kings Are Made – How Kingship Changes (University of Helsinki, 2006), pp. 229–231; Kumbani, J., Bradfield, J., Rusch, N. and Wurz, S. 2019. A functional investigation of southern…","date_citation_display":"Vogelsang/Eichhorn2011 pp63,70–71","object_display":"Incised shale blade, 86 × 26 × 5 mm, with polished edges and a worn 3 mm terminal perforation.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"oruwanje","display_name":"Oruwanje incised shale blade","image":{"full":"assets/objects/archaeology_four_2026/oruwanje-fig31-3.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/archaeology_four_2026/oruwanje-fig31-3_thumb.jpg","alt":"Drawing of a long incised stone blade with a hole at left, rounded end at right, a thin edge profile above and broad low cross-section beside it.","credit":"Vogelsang and Eichhorn2011, fig31.3","source_page":"https://the-eis.com/elibrary/sites/default/files/downloads/literature/Under%20the%20Mopane%20Tree_Holocene%20settlement%20in%20northern%20Namibia.pdf","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Oruwanje shale blade, 86 mm long, with its edge profile and cross-section; fig. 31.3."},"slug":"vogelsang2011-001-oruwanje-95-1-rockshelter"}