Middenbeemster Keyserkerk bone snorrebot

snorrebot

Source term: snorrebot (zoemhout/snorhout)

snorrebot = Dutch, 'whirring bone' (snorren, to whirr + bot, bone); the report also gives the synonyms zoemhout and snorhout, 'humming-wood' and 'whirring-wood'.

Five uneven teeth bite into one end of a bone blade found beside the Keyserkerk in the Beemster polder. At the other end a single hole once carried the cord. Swung in a circle, the 13.5-centimetre slat spun on its own axis and gave a humming, whirring voice — a typical children's toy of the Dutch Middle Ages and the centuries after. It surfaced in a charnel pit, among bones cleared from older graves as the churchyard was reworked; the excavators suggest it was first buried with a child.

Door luchtwervelingen gaat het plaatje om zijn as tollen waarbij het een zoemend of snorrend geluid voortbrengt.

Air turbulence sets the little plate spinning on its axis, producing a humming or whirring sound.

Hakvoort, De begravingen bij de Keyserkerk te Middenbeemster (2013), p. 66

Particulars

Object

Bone blade 13.5 cm long, 2.4-2.8 cm wide, 0.4 cm thick: rounded top with a 0.5 cm cord hole, bevelled sides, five notches of differing depth at the lower end.

Function

A children's toy: swung in a circle on a cord through the terminal hole; airflow spins the blade on its axis for a humming, whirring sound.