The Bullroarer Atlas

SALMON2026-001 - archaeological find

Ancestral Puebloan / Salmon Pueblo

United States - Salmon Pueblo - San Juan County, New Mexico - mixed Chacoan and San Juan context - North America - Southwest

Archaeological datec. 1090–1280 CEMixed Chacoan and San Juan feature fill; object undated.

Function not recorded

Salmon Pueblo bullroarer with surviving hematite mosaic and a turquoise inlay.
Salmon Pueblo bullroarer with surviving hematite mosaic and a turquoise inlay. Image source

Source term: bullroarer

Turquoise and hematite made this roaring blade flash blue and black. It emerged from the eastern floor-vault fill of Salmon Pueblo's Great Kiva, a plaza chamber nearly fifteen metres across. Ceremony concentrated around two great floor vaults or foot drums. Beside the eastern vault, excavators mapped more than seventy burned, impressed corn cobs that may have served as corn mothers. Built with Salmon's Chacoan founding around 1090, the kiva was repeatedly remade by later San Juan occupants.

Bullroarer decorated with turquoise and hematite from Salmon Ruins, just outside Farmington, New Mexico.

Gregory L. Little, X post, 9 April 2026
Object
Wooden bullroarer with a terminal perforation and surviving turquoise and hematite mosaic, excavated from Great Kiva Room 130W at Salmon Pueblo.
Function
Not recorded.
Map confidence
medium - Salmon Pueblo great-house site anchor; object provenience Room 130W, grid 02E/48S.
Source location
SPARC WO80-000431-MSP / SA130W084; Gregory L. Little photograph, 9 April 2026

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