ROCK ON, BRU!
Music is thought to be one of the ways that our ancient ancestors expressed their emotions – and may well have led to early languages. SHAUN SMILLIE
A
ROCK ART INSTITUTE
t Matjes River cave in the Eastern Cape the discovery of a flat piece of bone, with a hole bored through it, has provided an earpiece into the deep past. Careful examination suggested the bone was part of a bullroarer, also known as a Goin!goin. The archaeologists believed they had found one of humankind’s oldest musical instruments in South Africa. Bullroarers are almost universal, with a number having been found in Europe, Asia, India, the Americas and in Australia. The Australian Aboriginal people have been known to use bullroarers in ceremonies and as a form of communication.
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“A bullroarer is an oblong object, with a single hole in it, and then you put a string through it and you whirl it above your head, which is quite difficult to do,” explains Professor Sarah Wurz, from the Wits School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies. “It makes a whirring sound but a rhythmical one. It is almost like the sound of bees.” To find out if this piece of bone was in fact a bullroarer, Wurz and her team had to make one themselves. They built a replica from bone. It turned out that their hunch was correct. They started experimenting with all types of bullroarers.