The Bullroarer Atlas

MUS2026-274 - museum specimen

Crocodile-headed Sepik blade with handle

Papua New Guinea - Sepik region (museum attribution uncertain) - Oceania - Sahul

Function not recorded

The Sepik blade MIR 1282 complete with its bamboo cord-carrier, head carved as a crocodile.
The Sepik blade MIR 1282 complete with its bamboo cord-carrier, head carved as a crocodile. Image source

Source term: Schwirrholz

A crocodile's head closes one end of this blade; a zigzag field runs the body between two cross-bands, and red paint survives in the cuts. The slat did not travel alone — a cord and a long separate handle came with it, so grip, line and blade are all still together, the whole apparatus that turned a carved plank into a voice.

Ende stilisierter Krokodilkopf. Spuren roter Bemalung.

The end is a stylized crocodile head. Traces of red paint.

Germanisches Nationalmuseum, catalogue description, MIR 1282
Object
Elongated wooden blade with carved zigzag fields, a stylized crocodile-head end, red-paint traces, cord, and a separate long handle.
Function
Not recorded.
Source
MIMO/Germanisches Nationalmuseum MIR1282; New Guinea, Sepik region (?); German description: elongated carved zigzag field between two cross-fields, end shaped as a stylized crocodile head, traces of red paint
Source location
Page references

MIR1282; OAI_GNM_907565

Source confidence
low Broad Sepik regional anchor; the museum marks the attribution uncertain.

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