The Bullroarer Atlas

DIAZANDREU2021-001 - archaeological find

Sierra de la Giganta bullroarer

Mexico - Baja California Sur - Sierra de la Giganta, Loreto municipality - North America

Archaeological dateUndatedKnown to the museum by 2 April 2019.

Function not recorded

A plain Hopi To-Wok-Kin-Pi, Oraibi; not the Sierra de la Giganta bullroarer (unphotographed).
Representative — not this record’s object. · A plain Hopi To-Wok-Kin-Pi, Oraibi; not the Sierra de la Giganta bullroarer (unphotographed). Image source

Source term: bullroarer

The Museo Regional de Antropología e Historia de Baja California Sur, in La Paz, holds a bullroarer found in the Sierra de la Giganta, the mountain range behind Loreto on the Gulf coast. A 2021 study of the peninsula's rock-art soundscapes reports the find on the word of the archaeologist Harumi Fujita, who told its authors of the object in 2019. It is the third bullroarer reported from Baja California Sur, after one from a cave in the San Julio Basin and one from a burial cave at Bahía de los Ángeles — three separate finds, none sharing a findspot or a description with the others.

In the Regional Museum of Anthropology and History of La Paz there is also a bullroarer found in the Sierra de la Giganta (Loreto) and a shell trumpet from the site of El Médano, Cabo San Lucas (Los Cabos) (Harumi Fujita, pers. comm. 2 April 2019).

Margarita Díaz-Andreu, María de la Luz Gutiérrez Martínez, Tommaso Mattioli, Mathieu Picas, César Villalobos and Leslie F. Zubieta, "The soundscapes of Baja California Sur," Quaternary International 572 (2021), p. 170
Object
A bullroarer found in the Sierra de la Giganta, in the Loreto area of Baja California Sur, and now held by the Museo Regional de Antropología e Historia de Baja California Sur in La Paz. No excavation record, accession number, material, or measurements have been published; archaeologist Harumi Fujita reported the find to the study's authors in a communication dated 2 April 2019.
Function
Not recorded. The publication states only that the object was found in the Sierra de la Giganta and is held by the La Paz museum; no rite, performer, or occasion for it survives.
Map confidence
low - Loreto town anchor for the Sierra de la Giganta range; the source names a mountain range and municipality, not an exact site, so this is a range/municipality-level point, not a findspot.
Source location
p. 170

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