The Bullroarer Atlas

AUSIN-022 - museum specimen

Wyndham

East Kimberley - Western Australia

Function not recorded

The Wyndham bull-roarer itself: a wooden board incised in a fine herringbone pattern and pierced near its point, one of two such boards from...
The Wyndham bull-roarer itself: a wooden board incised in a fine herringbone pattern and pierced near its point, one of two such boards from Wyndham, Western Australia collected by Joseph Beal Steere. Science Museum Group (A140596) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

Source term: bull-roarer

Two wooden bullroarers from Wyndham, in the East Kimberley of Western Australia, each perforated at both ends and cut with carved rectilinear designs. Collected sometime between roughly 1870 and 1925, they passed into Sir Henry Wellcome's museum and are now held by the Science Museum Group in London. The record names no maker and no rite, noting only that such objects sound a deep, vibrant, roaring voice when swung on a cord and matter in Aboriginal ritual.

both perforated at either ends and decorated with carved rectilinear designs. When attached to a cord and swung through the air, bull roarers emit a deep, vibrant, roaring sound and are important in rituals in Australian Aboriginal society.

Science Museum Group Collection, object A140596 (co104687), "Two wood Bull Roarers, Western Australia, c. 1870-1925"
Object
One of two wood bullroarers from Wyndham in Science Museum Group collection
Function
East Kimberley/Wyndham object anchor with carved rectilinear design
Map confidence
high - Wyndham town anchor from collection locality
Source location
Science Museum Group object A140596 / co104687

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