Lund Helgonabacken bone vinare

vinare

vinare = Swedish, “whiner” — the museum term for whirled sound toys of bone or wood.

Slaughter waste became music in the old towns of Scandinavia. Kulturen’s archaeologists in Lund know the type well: bore a hole through a pig’s metatarsal, fasten a string in it, and spin the bone fast through the air until it whines — vinare, the Swedish name says plainly, “whiner.” The museum calls it a plaything, one any child could cut from the kitchen midden. The catalog card, drawn at full scale in 1939, records four such pierced bones dug from Helgonabacken in the heart of Lund.

I hålet fäster man ett snöre och när benet snurras snabbt i luften uppstår ett vinande ljud. Enkelt, billigt och underhållande!

A string is fastened in the hole, and when the bone is spun quickly through the air a whining sound arises. Simple, cheap and entertaining!

Maria Bohlin, “Föremål från undersökningen i kvarteret Sankt Mikael,” Kulturen, Lund, 13 June 2019, on the same vinare type.

Particulars

Object

Four pig metatarsal bones, each pierced through with a single hole; recorded on a 1939 Kulturen catalog card with the bone drawn at full scale (KM 38407:23).

Function

A children’s toy: a string fastened through the bored hole and the bone spun fast in the air for its whining sound — the bone counterpart of the wooden bullroarer.