{"id":"CASTELLUCCIO2026-001","label":"Castelluccio bossed bone plaque","people_or_site":"Castelluccio necropolis, Noto; tomb 13 grave assemblage","country_current":"Italy","historic_region":"Val di Noto / province of Syracuse, Sicily","macroregion":"Europe / Mediterranean","local_name":"osso a globuli","source_term":"osso a globuli / bossed bone plaque","source_language":"Italian / English","object_description":"A substantially complete carved bone plaque worked in relief with rows of raised bosses and fine incised lines; small holes pierce the bosses themselves rather than a plaque end. Most examples of this Sicilian Early Bronze Age class run under 10 cm, the longest known just 16 cm.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"crescimanno_belgiorno_ossi_a_globuli_castelluccio","source_type":"archaeological_catalog","source_url":"https://www.preistoriainitalia.it/scheda/ossi-a-globuli-di-castelluccio-noto-sr/","page_or_plate":"Preistoria in Italia object record, image 'osso n. 1'; Brandenburg 2018 conference program p. 2; Nicoletti 2019, Incontri 7(28), pp. 18-22","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Published site coordinate for the Castelluccio di Noto excavations, the rock-cut necropolis in the Cava della Signora between Noto and Palazzolo Acreide; not a tomb coordinate.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Tomb 13 in the rock-cut necropolis above the Cava della Signora gave up, among its grave goods, a length of bone carved into a row of swollen knobs and edged with fine ruled lines. Sicilian archaeology has called these ossi a globuli nearly everything: imports proving very early sea trade, small idols, badges of rank, fittings for daggers, tallies for remembering by. Duccio Belgiorno added one more possibility, that they were whirled, and that the knobs and the incisions belong to an instrument. On this piece the holes sit inside the bosses rather than at an end, so from the photograph alone no one can say whether a cord ever passed through it.","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":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","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 grave context; object not directly dated.","date_basis":"cultural_phase","date_confidence":"medium","date_citation":"crescimanno_castelluccio_ossi_globuli, tomb 13 inv. 8852; Austrian Archaeological Institute, The Early Bronze Age in southeastern Sicily","sources":[{"citation":"Barbara Crescimanno, \"Ossi a globuli di Castelluccio - Noto (SR),\" Preistoria in Italia, image \"osso n. 1,\" citing Duccio Belgiorno’s rombo proposal","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 programme, State Archaeological Museum Brandenburg (2018), p. 2","url":"https://www.landesmuseum-brandenburg.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Bilder/2_DasMuseum/2.4.Sonderausstellung/Programm_MusicArchaeology.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20181024222753/https://www.landesmuseum-brandenburg.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Bilder/2_DasMuseum/2.4.Sonderausstellung/Programm_MusicArchaeology.pdf"},{"citation":"Fabrizio Nicoletti, \"Due ossi a globuli e altri disiecta membra dell’antica eta del Bronzo,\" Incontri 7(28) (2019): 18-22"},{"citation":"Museo Paolo Orsi, object 8852, Castelluccio tomb 13"}],"source_citations":"Barbara Crescimanno, \"Ossi a globuli di Castelluccio - Noto (SR),\" Preistoria in Italia, image \"osso n. 1,\" citing Duccio Belgiorno’s rombo proposal; Paola Budano, \"Sicilian Bossed Bone Bullroarers,\" Experimental Music Archaeology conference programme, State Archaeological Museum Brandenburg (2018), p. 2; Fabrizio Nicoletti, \"Due ossi a globuli e altri disiecta membra dell’antica eta del Bronzo,\" Incontri 7(28) (2019): 18-22; Museo Paolo Orsi, object 8852, Castelluccio tomb 13","source_display":"Barbara Crescimanno, \"Ossi a globuli di Castelluccio - Noto (SR),\" Preistoria in Italia, image \"osso n. 1,\" citing Duccio Belgiorno’s rombo proposal; Paola Budano, \"Sicilian Bossed Bone Bullroarers,\" Experimental Music Archaeology conference programme, State Archaeological Museum Brandenburg (2018), p. 2; Fabrizio Nicoletti, \"Due ossi a globuli e altri…","date_citation_display":"tomb 13 inv. 8852; Austrian Archaeological Institute, The Early Bronze Age in southeastern Sicily","object_display":"A substantially complete carved bone plaque worked in relief with rows of raised bosses and fine incised lines; small holes pierce the bosses themselves rather than a plaque end. Most examples of this Sicilian Early Bronze Age class run under 10 cm, the longest known just 16 cm.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"castelluccio necropolis","display_name":"Castelluccio bossed bone plaque","image":{"full":"assets/objects/CASTELLUCCIO2026-001_tomb13_inv8852.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/CASTELLUCCIO2026-001_tomb13_inv8852_thumb.jpg","alt":"Castelluccio tomb 13 bone plaque with a row of rounded raised bosses surrounded by incised cross-hatching.","credit":"Davide Mauro / Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi, inventory 8852","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Osso_a_globuli_(idoletto).jpg","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Castelluccio tomb 13 bossed-bone plaque, Museo Paolo Orsi inv. 8852.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/hunt_rounds123_2026_10_30/castelluccio2026-001_08-osso-globuli_7disegno.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/hunt_rounds123_2026_10_30/thumbs/castelluccio2026-001_08-osso-globuli_7disegno.jpg","alt":"A photograph and a tracing of a bone plaque with three round bosses and zigzag borders.","credit":"Preistoria in Italia, Ossi a globuli di Castelluccio","source_page":"https://www.preistoriainitalia.it/scheda/ossi-a-globuli-di-castelluccio-noto-sr/","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Castelluccio bone no. 7, photographed and traced."}]},"slug":"castelluccio2026-001-castelluccio-necropolis-noto-tomb-13-grave-assemblage"}