The Bullroarer Atlas

LUND1998-001 - archaeological find

Tuv at Saltstraumen, Bodø Municipality

Norway - Nordland - Saltstraumen - Northern Europe

Function not recorded Candidate only

Photo H. Bjerck: the Tuv find at Saltstraumen still lying in the ground, a shale spearhead to the left and the probable bull-roarer, 6.4 cm...
Photo H. Bjerck: the Tuv find at Saltstraumen still lying in the ground, a shale spearhead to the left and the probable bull-roarer, 6.4 cm long with three notches at one end, to the right; both date to roughly 5000–3500 BC. Photo H. Bjerck, in Cajsa S. Lund, 'What is wrong with music archaeology?' (1998), fig. 2 CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

Source term: bullroarer (?) / shale propeller blade

In the spring of 1991, excavators at Tuv on the Saltstraumen tidal strait in Bodø municipality, northern Norway, lifted from a Stone Age cultural layer a reddish-brown shale object the size of a little propeller blade: 6.4 cm long, 2.7 cm wide, 9 grams, with three notches cut into one end. Beside it lay a greyish-green shale spearhead, and the site dated to roughly 3500–5000 BC. The field archaeologist in charge, Hein Bjartmann Bjerck, first wondered whether it was a knife blade or a piece of jewellery, then settled on the idea that it was a bullroarer — which would make it unique of its kind in Norway. He fastened a fishing line and swung it: "It was a fantastic experience to hear the shrill, powerful sound that was made," he wrote to the music archaeologist Cajsa Lund, who reported the find. Lund judged the interpretation plausible but refused to let the noise settle the matter, noting that a ruler, a key, a spoon-bait or an empty yoghurt container can all be made to whirr without any of them being a bullroarer.

'It was a fantastic experience to hear the shrill, powerful sound that was made', he writes to me.

Hein Bjartmann Bjerck, quoted in Cajsa S. Lund, "What is Wrong with Music Archaeology?" (1998:19)
Object
Ts 9680a: a reddish-brown propeller-blade of polished red shale, 6.4 x 2.7 cm, 2-4 mm thick, 9 g, with three notches at one end; the notches support a half-hitch cord reconstruction, and replicas made a strong shrill sound.
Function
Neolithic possible bullroarer/sound tool from a named northern Norwegian site.
Map confidence
medium - representative on-land anchor at Tuv at Saltstraumen, Bodø Municipality (regional coordinate fell just offshore of the rendered coastline); not an exact findspot
Source location
Lund 1998 pp. 19-20; figs. 2-3; EMAP p. 30 / Fig. 3; Bjerck 2010 | Bjerck fig. 3; Ts 9680a

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