{"id":"BARAVITALLA2026-001","label":"Baravitalla three-boss bone plaque","people_or_site":"Contrada Baravitalla fortified Castelluccio-culture settlement, Cava d'Ispica near Modica; hearth among the round huts","country_current":"Italy","historic_region":"Cava d'Ispica / province of Ragusa, Sicily","macroregion":"Europe / Mediterranean","local_name":"osso a globuli","source_term":"osso a globuli / bossed bone plaque","source_language":"Italian / English","object_description":"A black, flat-based bone plaque bearing three raised circular bosses and incised margins, with a true suspension hole pierced at the top — unlike most plaques of this Sicilian class, whose holes sit within the bosses themselves. No dimensions are published for this piece.","function_summary":"Not recorded, though proposed as a ritual bullroarer given its suspension hole.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"distefano_baravitalla_osso_a_globuli_fig7","source_type":"archaeological_report","source_url":"https://www.antoniorandazzo.it/Preistoriasiracusa/bronzo-iblei-meridionali-.html","page_or_plate":"Di Stefano, fig. 7, '7 - Osso a globuli da Baravitalla'; Mercadante 2018, catalogue no. 13ci","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Published site coordinate for the prehistoric village of Baravitalla at the head of Cava d'Ispica, from the Sicilia in Rete site record; not a hut or hearth coordinate.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Among the round huts of a walled village at the head of Cava d'Ispica, a hearth held a small black plaque of bone: three raised knobs in a row, the edges scored with fine lines, and a hole drilled clean through the top. That hole is what sets this piece apart from most of its Sicilian relatives, whose perforations sit inside the bosses and lead nowhere; here a cord could actually have been tied. Duccio Belgiorno, who once ran the Modica museum where the plaque is now kept, proposed that these bossed bones were ritual bullroarers. Nobody has yet spun a copy to find out.","pull_quote":"gli ossi a globuli potrebbero essere strumenti musicali a carattere rituale del tipo 'rombo' (bull roarer)","pull_quote_translation":"the bossed bones could be ritual musical instruments of the 'rombo' (bullroarer) type","pull_quote_cite":"Duccio Belgiorno, quoted in Crescimanno, 'Ossi a globuli di Castelluccio - Noto (SR)', Preistoria in Italia","term_gloss":"osso a globuli (Italian): 'bossed bone', the Sicilian Early Bronze Age carved bone plaque worked with rows of raised knobs; English 'bossed bone plaque'.","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":true,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"f_archaeology":true,"archaeology_kind":"object","date_display":"c. 2150–1650 BC","date_qualification":"Early Bronze Age Castelluccio-facies settlement context; object not directly dated.","date_basis":"cultural_phase","date_confidence":"medium","date_citation":"di_stefano_baravitalla, fig. 7 and regional discussion; Austrian Archaeological Institute, The Early Bronze Age in southeastern Sicily","sources":[{"citation":"Giovanni Di Stefano, “Distribuzione territoriale degli insediamenti castellucciani degli Iblei meridionali e rapporti extrasiciliani. Alcuni esempi,” Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi / Progetto Scuola-Museo, fig. 7, “Osso a globuli da Baravitalla”","url":"https://www.antoniorandazzo.it/Preistoriasiracusa/bronzo-iblei-meridionali-.html","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20241104015259/https://www.antoniorandazzo.it/Preistoriasiracusa/bronzo-iblei-meridionali-.html"},{"citation":"Francesca Mercadante, Revisione, classificazione e analisi stilistica degli Ossa a Globi castellucciani e mediterranei (2018), catalogue no. 13ci, Museo Civico “F. L. Belgiorno,” Modica"},{"citation":"Duccio Belgiorno, bullroarer proposal, via Barbara Crescimanno, “Ossi a globuli di Castelluccio - Noto (SR),” Preistoria in Italia","url":"https://www.preistoriainitalia.it/scheda/ossi-a-globuli-di-castelluccio-noto-sr/","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013032645/https://www.preistoriainitalia.it/scheda/ossi-a-globuli-di-castelluccio-noto-sr/"},{"citation":"Paola Budano, “Sicilian Bossed Bone Bullroarers,” Experimental Music Archaeology conference program (2018), p. 2"}],"source_citations":"Giovanni Di Stefano, “Distribuzione territoriale degli insediamenti castellucciani degli Iblei meridionali e rapporti extrasiciliani. Alcuni esempi,” Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi / Progetto Scuola-Museo, fig. 7, “Osso a globuli da Baravitalla”; Francesca Mercadante, Revisione, classificazione e analisi stilistica degli Ossa a Globi castellucciani e mediterranei (2018), catalogue no. 13ci, Museo Civico “F. L. Belgiorno,” Modica; Duccio Belgiorno, bullroarer proposal, via Barbara Crescimanno, “Ossi a globuli di Castelluccio - Noto (SR),” Preistoria in Italia; Paola Budano, “Sicilian Bossed Bone Bullroarers,” Experimental Music Archaeology conference program (2018), p. 2","source_display":"Giovanni Di Stefano, “Distribuzione territoriale degli insediamenti castellucciani degli Iblei meridionali e rapporti extrasiciliani. Alcuni esempi,” Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi / Progetto Scuola-Museo, fig. 7, “Osso a globuli da Baravitalla”; Francesca Mercadante, Revisione, classificazione e analisi stilistica degli Ossa a Globi…","date_citation_display":"di Stefano Baravitalla, fig. 7 and regional discussion; Austrian Archaeological Institute, The Early Bronze Age in southeastern Sicily","object_display":"A black, flat-based bone plaque bearing three raised circular bosses and incised margins, with a true suspension hole pierced at the top — unlike most plaques of this Sicilian class, whose holes sit within the bosses themselves. No dimensions are published for this piece.","function_display":"Not recorded, though proposed as a ritual bullroarer given its suspension hole.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"contrada baravitalla","display_name":"Baravitalla three-boss bone plaque","image":{"full":"assets/objects/BARAVITALLA2026-001_osso_a_globuli.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/BARAVITALLA2026-001_osso_a_globuli_thumb.jpg","alt":"Close view of the Baravitalla bone plaque, with three raised bosses and incised geometric bands; its upper end is partly obscured.","credit":"Giovanni Di Stefano / Museo Civico F. L. Belgiorno, Modica, fig. 7","license":"No open license stated; rehosted low-resolution source photograph for noncommercial research","source_page":"https://www.antoniorandazzo.it/Preistoriasiracusa/bronzo-iblei-meridionali-.html","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Exact Baravitalla bossed-bone plaque, with three bosses and a terminal suspension hole."},"slug":"baravitalla2026-001-contrada-baravitalla-fortified-castelluccio-culture-settlement-cava-d"}