The Bullroarer Atlas

No. MUS2026-172

St Ives bullroarer and Buzzer pair

United Kingdom · Cambridgeshire · St Ives · Europe

Play / practical

The corded, saw-edged member of the St Ives pair, Pitt Rivers Museum.
Plate I. The corded, saw-edged member of the St Ives pair, Pitt Rivers Museum. Image source
Broad, plain wooden St Ives blade with clipped corners and a square hole near one end.
Plate II. The broad plain member of the St Ives pair, Pitt Rivers Museum. Image source

Bull roarer / Buzzer

Source term: Bullroarer

Bull roarer / Buzzer: the two museum-recorded names for the St Ives pair

St Ives preserved two styles side by side: a broad plain board and a narrow saw-edged blade with its cord still coiled beside it. Their blunt English names were Bull roarer and Buzzer.

Long wooden 'Bullroarer' with small serrations.

Pitt Rivers Museum 1902.51.4

Particulars

Object
Two carved wooden terminal-hole slats: one plain oblong blade, 217 x 60 mm, and one serrated blade, 197 x 36 mm, retaining its cord.
Function
Boys' toy, known by the same Bull roarer and Buzzer names Haddon gathered elsewhere in England.

Source

Pitt Rivers Museum 1902.51.3-.4

View the source · archived

Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.