{"id":"RIEK1934-001","label":"Vogelherd perforated ivory baton","people_or_site":"Vogelherd cave, Aurignacian layer V","country_current":"Germany","historic_region":"Lone Valley / Swabian Jura, Baden-Württemberg","macroregion":"Europe","local_name":"","source_term":"Schwirrblatt","source_language":"German / English","object_description":"Perforated mammoth-ivory baton, 237 x 41 x 13 mm, with a single helically marked hole; almost complete as Riek published it, and now lost.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"riek1934_vogelherd_vg30_1","source_type":"archaeological_monograph","source_url":"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18401937","page_or_plate":"Riek 1934, Taf. XXX.1; SignBase 2.0 object vhc0161; Conard and Rots 2024, Table 2","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Vogelherd cave anchor near Stetten ob Lontal, Niederstotzingen, from the published public coordinate for the cave; not a layer or findspot coordinate.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Gustav Riek pulled a perforated blade of mammoth ivory out of the Aurignacian layer at Vogelherd in 1931 and published it three years later as a Schwirrblatt, a whirring blade: twenty-four centimetres long, four wide, with a single end hole whose bore carries helical drilling marks. That would make it among the oldest sound-makers anyone has claimed, some thirty-five thousand years old. The object itself is gone. What survives is Riek's plate, a modern measured drawing, and catalogues that now file the piece more soberly as a perforated baton - and even the identification wavers, since a later description of the Vogelherd Schwirrblatt gives it two holes rather than one.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"Schwirrblatt: German 'whirring blade', the archaeological term for a bullroarer plate.","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. 38,000–32,000 BC","date_qualification":"Layer V horizon; lost object not directly dated.","date_basis":"cultural_phase","date_confidence":"low","date_citation":"both_praxmarer_2025_musik_steinzeit, p. 137; Riek 1934, Taf. XXX.1; SignBase 2.0 object vhc0161; Schürch et al. 2025","sources":[{"citation":"Gustav Riek, Die Eiszeitjägerstation am Vogelherd im Lonetal (Tübingen, 1934), pl. XXX.1; SignBase 2.0, object vhc0161; Nicholas J. Conard and Veerle Rots, Science Advances 10 (2024), table 2","url":"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18401937"}],"source_citations":"Gustav Riek, Die Eiszeitjägerstation am Vogelherd im Lonetal (Tübingen, 1934), pl. XXX.1; SignBase 2.0, object vhc0161; Nicholas J. Conard and Veerle Rots, Science Advances 10 (2024), table 2","source_display":"Gustav Riek, Die Eiszeitjägerstation am Vogelherd im Lonetal (Tübingen, 1934), pl. XXX.1; SignBase 2.0, object vhc0161; Nicholas J. Conard and Veerle Rots, Science Advances 10 (2024), table 2","date_citation_display":"Both Praxmarer 2025 Musik Steinzeit, p. 137; Riek 1934, Taf. XXX.1; SignBase 2.0 object vhc0161; Schürch et al. 2025","object_display":"Perforated mammoth-ivory baton, 237 x 41 x 13 mm, with a single helically marked hole; almost complete as Riek published it, and now lost.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"vogelherd cave","display_name":"Vogelherd perforated ivory baton","image":{"full":"assets/objects/RIEK1934-001_vogelherd_vg30-1_signbase.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/RIEK1934-001_vogelherd_vg30-1_signbase_thumb.jpg","alt":"Measured drawing of the Vogelherd ivory blade in face and edge views, with a perforation near one end and a shallow, irregular outline.","credit":"Dutkiewicz, Bentz, Hahn and Lee, SignBase 2.0, object vhc0161","license":"CC BY 4.0","source_page":"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18401937","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Measured drawing of the Vogelherd ivory blade, face and edge views."},"slug":"riek1934-001-vogelherd-cave-aurignacian-layer-v"}