Aitzbitarte IV cave

bramadera

bramadera: Spanish for a bullroarer; also called zumbador or rombo.

Etymology. 'Roarer/bellower' — named because the whirled sound is "like the bellowing of the wind"; a Castilian term shared with the children's noise-toy bramador or zumbador.

Four flat bone strips from the cave of Aitzbitarte IV, near Errenteria in Gipuzkoa, have been read as bullroarers — bramaderas, in Spanish — recovered by José Miguel de Barandiarán's excavations of 1963 and 1964 and kept in the municipal museum at San Sebastián. The most complete is a plano-convex sliver of bone about 106 by 15 mm, a small suspension hole near one end and the other tapering to a point, its only decoration plain longitudinal scratches grouped at each tip; it lay in the layer where the last Magdalenian gives way to the Azilian, the other three in the Magdalenian levels beneath. Whirled on a long cord, the type gives a roaring hum, like the Australian churinga.

varilla de hueso plana, con orificio de suspensión (bramadera)

flat bone rod, with a suspension hole (bullroarer)

Barandiarán, «Bramaderas» en el Paleolítico Superior peninsular (Pyrenae), quoting J. M. de Barandiarán's excavation report on Aitzbitarte IV (Campaña de 1964)

Particulars

Object

Four bone bramaderas (one complete, three fragmentary) from Magdalenian superior to Azilian transition levels.

Function

Whirled-cord aerophone.