The Bullroarer Atlas

ERVYNCK1990-001 - archaeological find

Gent rib snorrebot

Belgium - East Flanders - Gent, corner of Gouvernementstraat and Borreputsteeg - Europe - Low Countries

Archaeological datec. 800–1100 ADEarly-medieval ditch-fill context; object not directly dated.

Function not recorded

Exact STAM museum photograph of the early medieval Gouvernementstraat perforated cattle-rib snorrebot.
Exact STAM museum photograph of the early medieval Gouvernementstraat perforated cattle-rib snorrebot. Image source

snorrebot Dutch

snorrebot: Dutch for a 'whirring bone,' an end-holed blade swung freely on a cord.

A thin strip of cattle or horse rib came from a medieval ditch in Gent, pierced at one end and sharpened along one edge. Achiel Ervynck called it a snorrebot — a Dutch 'whirring bone' — and tested the design himself. It worked: the curved blade pivoted on its long axis as it flew, producing a sound he admitted was 'not exactly spectacular.'

De vondst uit de Gouvernementstraat betreft ontegensprekelijk een snorrebot. ... De klank is niet direct spectaculair, maar het werkt!

The find from the Gouvernementstraat is incontrovertibly a snorrebot. ... The sound is not exactly spectacular, but it works!

Ervynck 1990:39-41
Object
An 11 cm strip cut lengthwise from a cattle-or-horse rib, planed smooth, pierced once at a short end and sharpened along one long edge.
Function
Not recorded.
Map confidence
high - OpenStreetMap street anchor for Borreputsteeg at its junction with Gouvernementstraat, Gent - the named excavation corner, so an address-level anchor, not a coordinate for the ditch or the object.
Source location
Page references

Ervynck 1990, printed pp. 39-42, identification and sounding within pp. 39-41; STAMblad 1 (2009), pp. 8-9, item 8; inv. P3907

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