The Bullroarer Atlas

MUS2026-350 - museum specimen

Blade with a white-filled head motif

Papua New Guinea - New Guinea; locality unrecorded - Oceania

Function not recorded

The Brussels blade 1976.027-01, its head motif filled with white.
The Brussels blade 1976.027-01, its head motif filled with white. Image source

Source term: Bullroarer

Cut deep and packed with white, the curling design at the head of this blade still resolves into something like a face. Fifty-nine centimetres long and eight wide, it was carved to be read at a glance — and then swung on a cord until nobody could see it at all.

Object
A pointed wooden blade, 59.1 × 8.2 cm, with a deeply cut, white-filled curvilinear face or head motif.
Function
Not recorded.
Source
Musical Instruments Museum Brussels / MIMO 1976.027-01; 59.1 × 8.2 cm
Source location
1976.027-01
Source confidence
low New Guinea centroid because the catalogue gives no locality.

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