Origin from -18,000
A flat blade of wood or stone whirled on a cord so that it roars, one of the oldest sound producing objects known and used independently across the world. In a number of Aboriginal Australian and Papuan traditions it is a secret sacred object belonging to men's ceremony, which the uninitiated may not see or hear, and museums and publishers have withdrawn images of particular examples at the request of the communities concerned. In ancient Greece the rhombos was used in the mysteries, and in parts of Amazonia the instrument is open, so the restriction is a fact about particular traditions rather than about the object. This entry stays at the level those traditions themselves make public.
Facts
Use
Who May Handle ItInitiates only 1Tradition: Australian Aboriginal traditions Handled By DetailRestricted to initiated men in a number of Aboriginal Australian traditions, where it is a secret sacred object that the uninitiated may not see or hear. 1Tradition: Australian Aboriginal traditions Attributions
TraditionWidespread across traditions, secret in some Aboriginal Australian and Papuan traditions and open in ancient Greece and parts of Amazonia 1 Status
Status TodayAccess restricted by its custodians or by law 1Tradition: Australian Aboriginal Religion Restricted knowledge in the Aboriginal Australian traditions where its ceremonial use is most extensively documented, generally reserved to initiated men Origins
Origin Period Scholarship and Forensics
Scholarly NoteAmong the oldest attested sound-producing instruments in the archaeological record; documented independently across Aboriginal Australia, the Americas, Africa and ancient Greek mystery cult 1Tradition: Global (Cross-Cultural) Material (class) Object category (class) Learn More
One of the Oldest Sound Making Instruments Known
The bullroarer, a flat blade of wood or stone attached to a cord and whirled through the air to produce a distinctive low roaring or humming sound, is among the oldest attested sound producing instruments in the archaeological record, with examples identified at sites many thousands of years old and independent, unrelated traditions of use documented across Aboriginal Australia, the Americas, Africa, and ancient Greece, where it appears in connection with mystery cult ritual.
Berndt and Berndt's survey of Aboriginal Australian traditional life situates the bullroarer among the instruments whose sound carries deep ceremonial significance across many, though by no means all, Aboriginal language groups and regions, without describing the specific ceremonies in which it is used, since that ceremonial content belongs to restricted, gender and initiation specific knowledge that is not appropriate to detail outside the communities that hold it. This entry accordingly describes the object and its documented cross cultural distribution rather than any specific ceremony, consistent with the closed and protected status the instrument holds within the Aboriginal Australian traditions from which its most extensively documented ritual use is known.
Knowledge Held by Initiated Custodians, Not for General Description
In the Aboriginal Australian traditions where the bullroarer is most thoroughly documented, its sound, meaning and correct ceremonial use are restricted knowledge, generally reserved to initiated men and withheld from women, children and the uninitiated, a restriction that is itself part of the object's significance rather than an incidental social rule layered on top of an otherwise open practice.
Scholars including Berndt and Berndt, whose research was conducted with the knowledge and cooperation of Aboriginal communities, are consistently careful in published work to describe the instrument's general character and distribution while declining to publish restricted ceremonial detail that community custodians have not authorised for outside circulation, a scholarly practice this entry follows deliberately.
Outside Australia, the instrument's other documented traditions, ancient Greek mystery cult use among them, are known today mainly through archaeological and textual fragments rather than through any living, continuously practised ceremonial tradition, which is part of why the Australian material remains the most extensively studied living context for the instrument, and the one where the ethical obligation to respect restricted knowledge is most directly active today.
Connections
Associated With
Both restricted-knowledge Aboriginal Australian sound instruments, though held under different specific protocols
Belongs to Tradition
Source The World of the First Australians: Aboriginal Traditional Life Past and PresentRonald M. Berndt and Catherine H. Berndt
Sources
1. The World of the First Australians: Aboriginal Traditional Life Past and Present
Ronald M. Berndt and Catherine H. Berndt, Aboriginal Studies Press, 1999
2. Bullroarer (Wikipedia)
lead paragraph
The bullroarer, rhombus, or turndun is an ancient ritual musical instrument and a device historically used for communicating over great distances.
Lead section
The bullroarer, rhombus, or turndun is an ancient ritual musical instrument and a device historically used for communicating over great distances.
Lead section: origin-period-start-year
It dates to the Paleolithic period, examples dating from 18,000 BC having been found in Ukraine.
Lead sentence on materials
It consists of a piece of wood attached to a string, which when swung in a large circle produces a roaring vibration sound.
Opening sentence
The bullroarer, rhombus, or turndun is an ancient ritual musical instrument and a device historically used for communicating over great distances.
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