MUS2026-073 - museum specimen
Bongu
Papua New Guinea - Rai Coast, Madang (Astrolabe B - Oceania - Sahul
Function not recorded
Source term: bull-roarer
'Pronkpijl of bromhout' (Dutch) = 'show-arrow or bullroarer' -- the NMVW catalogue's own undecided object class. 'Schwirrholz' (German) = bullroarer. 'Barium-Fest' = the circumcision/maturity festival of the Finschhafen region described by Schellong, in which the bullroarer was sounded.
From Bongu comes an ornamented wooden bullroarer whose flat, leaf-shaped blade tapers to a point at either end. Geometric carving covers its face, and the swing-cord still passes through one tip: decoration and working tackle survive together.
- Object
- Ornamented flat wooden blade, leaf-shaped and pointed at both ends, with geometric carving and its swing-cord through one tip; Wereldmuseum RV-1351-17.
- Function
- Specific local use is not recorded.
- Map confidence
- medium - approximate culture/locality centroid
- Source location
- RV-1351-17; Schmeltz 1896, pp. 104-106