The Bullroarer Atlas

No. ERVYNCK1990-001Europe

Gent rib snorrebot

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

Function not recorded

Archaeological datec. 800–1100 ADEarly-medieval ditch-fill context; object not directly dated.
The perforated rib snorrebot from an early medieval ditch on the Gouvernementstraat, Gent.
Plate I. The perforated rib snorrebot from an early medieval ditch on the Gouvernementstraat, Gent. Image source

snorrebot

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

Particulars

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.

Sources

  1. Achiel Ervynck, "Een snorrebot uit de 9de-11de eeuw: Beenderresten uit de Gouvernementstraat," Stadsarcheologie: Bodem en Monument in Gent 14(4) (1990): 39-42 View · archived
  2. Inventaris Onroerend Erfgoed, "Archeologische opgravingen Gent," excavation event 334498 View · archived
  3. STAM, STAMblad 1 (2009), pp. 8-9, item 8, inv. P3907
  4. Viesturs Āboltiņš, "Cēsu pilī iegūtie dzīvnieku skeleta materiālu priekšmeti," Cēsu pils raksti V (2024), pp. 51-52

Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.