The Bullroarer Atlas

LECOQ1916-001 - museum specimen

Turfan Uyghur (Turki), Kara Khoja

China - Kara Khoja (Qara Chodscha - Gaochang), Turfan oasis, Xinjiang - Central Asia

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A flat Schwirrholz blade bound by its cotton cord to a twig handle, collected at Kara Khoja by the Second Turfan Expedition, 1904–1905 — the...
A flat Schwirrholz blade bound by its cotton cord to a twig handle, collected at Kara Khoja by the Second Turfan Expedition, 1904–1905 — the piece matching Le Coq's Fig. 8 yongpuldurpic. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ethnologisches Museum / Aileen Fehse CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

yongpuldurpic German

Source term: Schwirrholz (yongpuldurpic)

yongpuldurpic (Turfan Turki/Uyghur, as transcribed by Le Coq 1916) - the swung bullroarer: a small flat board on a cotton cord tied to a cotton-plant twig handle. Le Coq's yongyulduryuc (Fig. 9) is the distinct pull-cord tamarisk buzzer.

Children at Kara Khoja made the yongpuldurpic from the plants around them: a small flat board tied with cotton cord to a twig cut from a cotton stalk. Swung by the twig handle, the little blade whirred above the Turfan oasis.

Das echte Schwirrholz haben wir nur in der Gegend von Turfan gesehen... Kleines flaches Brettchen, mit Baumwollschnur an einem Aestchen der Baumwollpflanze befestigt. Qara Chodscha.

The genuine bullroarer we have seen only in the area of Turfan... A small flat little board, fastened with a cotton cord to a small twig of the cotton plant. Kara Khoja.

Le Coq, Volkskundliches aus Ost-Turkistan (1916), ch. II, Fig. 8 caption and text.
Object
Small flat wooden blade attached by cotton cord to a cotton-plant twig handle; Berlin I B 4111.
Function
Children’s whirled toy.
Map confidence
medium_high - Kara Khoja / Gaochang ruins settlement, Turfan oasis; Le Coq and the SMB record both give the locality
Source location
Le Coq 1916, ch. II, Fig. 8; SMB I B 4111

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