JUDD1959-001 - archaeological find
Pueblo del Arroyo elk-bone bullroarer
United States - Pueblo del Arroyo - Chaco Canyon - undated within site - North America - Southwest
Weather / fertility magic
Source term: bull roarer
Digging at Pueblo del Arroyo, Neil Judd's crew turned up a long blade cut from an elk leg bone, pierced near one end and crossed by two incised bands. Zuni workmen on the dig recognized it at once as a bull roarer, though it was bone rather than the usual lightning-riven wood, and bore incised bands rather than lightning symbols. To them it was still a prayer device, twirled on a cord to voice wind and invite rain. No find context or cord survived, so whether Chaco's own builders used it the same way is unknown.
recognized by some of our Zuni workmen as a 'bull roarer'
Judd 1959:133
- Object
- Long, flat elk cannon-bone blade with nearly parallel sides, a gently rounded distal end, one circular perforation near the opposite end, and two transverse incised bands; no cord or measurements survive.
- Function
- Identified by the Zuni workmen on Judd's own excavation as a bull roarer — a prayer device twirled at the end of a cord to simulate the wind and so invite rain. The identification is theirs, of this exact object; Judd notes it departs from historic Zuni practice in being elk bone rather than lightning-riven wood, with incised bands rather than lightning symbols.
- Map confidence
- medium - National Park Service Pueblo del Arroyo great-house anchor; the artifact's excavation locus is unrecorded.
- Source location
Page references
printed p. 133; Plate 37 q
- Snake-linked
- Weather magic