The Bullroarer Atlas

GONZALEZBALDINI1999-001 - archaeological find

Copacabana incised stone bullroarer

Argentina - Copacabana - Tinogasta Department - Catamarca - South America

Archaeological datec. 200 BCTentative stylistic attribution; object not directly dated.

Function not recorded Candidate only

Both faces of Museo Moyano Piece 5, with its terminal drilled hole, stepped ornament and T-faced figure.
Both faces of Museo Moyano Piece 5, with its terminal drilled hole, stepped ornament and T-faced figure. · CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 Ar Image source

Source term: posible cetro

posible cetro (Spanish): 'possible sceptre'; related blades in the same stone tradition have also been identified as bullroarers.

A squared human face stares from one end: block eyes, a broad T-shaped nose and a mouth scored with teeth. Beneath it, paired grecas frame a great divided diamond, while the reverse is nearly bare. The surviving blade is already 34.5 centimetres long despite its broken end. Its carved world belongs to the Tinogasta Geométrico Temprano style, tentatively placed around 200 BC—a stone tradition of faces dissolving into steps, teeth and geometric doubles.

El largo total del fragmento existente es de 345 mm. Procedería de Copacabana, provincia de Catamarca. Es de forma trapezoidal muy alargada, con superficies muy pulidas. Parece haber sufrido una fractura en un extremo, el que tiene un agujero central de factura troncocónica.

The total length of the surviving fragment is 345 mm. It is said to come from Copacabana, Catamarca Province. It is a very elongated trapezoid with highly polished surfaces. It appears to have suffered a break at one end, which has a central troncoconical hole.

González and Baldini 1999, p. 36, §3.1.5
Object
A surviving 34.5 cm fragment of a very elongated, highly polished trapezoidal stone blade, broken at one end but retaining a central troncoconical drilled hole there. One face bears a squared anthropomorphic face with a broad T-shaped nose, paired grecas, and a large divided rhomb bordered by symmetrical stepped lines; the reverse carries only a long zigzag and a short band at the intact end.
Function
Possible stone bullroarer; the published alternative is a ceremonial sceptre. No cord, wear study or acoustic test is recorded.
Map confidence
low_medium - Official Argentine locality coordinate for Copacabana, Tinogasta Department, Catamarca (INDEC 10105050). The museum provenance is reported rather than excavated; the point represents that named locality, not a recovery locus.
Source location
Page references

printed pp. 35–36, §3.1.5, Plate II:1; the section heading mistakenly says Plate III:1

View source Open this point on the interactive map