Three Vicús stone buzzing plaques

placa zumbadora

Source term: probables placas zumbadoras de piedra

placa zumbadora (Spanish): 'buzzing plaque', bullroarer; Gentile 2018 p. 19 n. 9 gives churinga, bullroarer, bramadera and rombo as synonyms, after Pérez Bugallo 1993.

Three flat stones lie side by side in a photograph from the national museum in Lima: one almost round, one a small rectangle, one a trapezoid, none of them eight centimetres tall, each with a hole bored near an edge. They are attributed to Vicús, the culture of the Piura valleys on Peru's far northern coast; beyond that, only their sizes and weights are recorded. Margarita Gentile, gathering comparisons for the whirled plaques she had found on Llullaillaco, printed all three together under a single heading: probable stone buzzing plaques. Nobody records where they were dug, or when.

Probables placas zumbadoras de piedra, de izquierda a derecha: Nro. 87886, diám. máx. 78,50 mm, peso 88 grs. Vicús. Nro. 87882, 78 mm alto, 50 mm ancho, peso 60 grs. Vicús. Nro. 87884, 78 mm alto, 64 mm ancho, peso 51 grs. Vicús.

Probable stone buzzing plaques, from left to right: no. 87886, maximum diameter 78.50 mm, weight 88 g, Vicús; no. 87882, 78 mm high, 50 mm wide, weight 60 g, Vicús; no. 87884, 78 mm high, 64 mm wide, weight 51 g, Vicús.

Gentile 2018, Fig. 15 caption, p. 33

Particulars

Object

Three flat stone plaques, each with a single hole near one edge, published together as one comparison set: 87886, nearly circular, 78.50 mm maximum diameter, 88 g; 87882, compact rectangular, 78 mm high and 50 mm wide, 60 g; 87884, trapezoidal, 78 mm high and 64 mm wide, 51 g. Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú, Lima. No thickness is published for any of the three.

Function

Stone buzzing plaques, whirled on a cord for their sound, in Gentile's reading.