{"id":"SMILCICI2026-001","label":"Smilčići bone plate","people_or_site":"Smilčići Neolithic site","country_current":"Croatia","historic_region":"Smilčići / northern Dalmatia","macroregion":"Europe","local_name":"","source_term":"bull roarer / pendant / pottery smoother","source_language":"English","object_description":"Small bone plate with a thin lenticular section and one biconical perforation at one end; about 68 x 29 x 6 mm at the plate's 1:1 scale. Batović reads it as probably a pottery smoother; Galin reinterprets it as a bullroarer.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"galin1988_smilcici_bone","source_type":"archaeomusicological_review","source_url":"https://hrcak.srce.hr/en/53672","page_or_plate":"Galin printed pp. 135-136, Fig. 36; Batović 1979 p. 503, Table LXXVII fig. 5","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Smilčić-Barica/Smilčić I archaeological site anchor from Hofmann 2020, printed p. 120 table (44.117, 15.483), corroborated by Marijanović 2021 Fig. 1 (p. 32); not an object find coordinate.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"A small bone blade from Smilčići, thin and tongue-shaped, carries a single biconical hole at one end. Batović, who published it, thought it an ornament or a tool for smoothing pottery; Galin later sent it into the literature as a bullroarer. The plate that finally settles its shape shows a form a cord could indeed swing - barely a palm long, from the Early Neolithic impresso world of the eastern Adriatic, and still untested for wear or sound.","pull_quote":"the oldest archeological finding of an artifact that we interpret as a bull roarer is made of bone, from Smilčići","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Galin 1988:135-136","term_gloss":"No local term is recorded","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. 6000–5500 BC","date_qualification":"Early Neolithic Impresso-phase attribution; object not directly dated.","date_basis":"cultural_phase","date_confidence":"medium","date_citation":"batovic1979_jadranska_zona, p. 503 and T. LXXVII fig. 5; Marijanović et al. 2020 DOI 10.1002/oa.2859","sources":[{"citation":"Krešimir Galin, Archeological Findings of Musical Instruments in Yugoslavia (Narodna umjetnost, special issue 2, 1988), pp. 135-136, fig. 36; Šime Batović, in Praistorija jugoslavenskih zemalja II: Neolit (1979), p. 503, pl. LXXVII","url":"https://hrcak.srce.hr/en/53672","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013033849/https://hrcak.srce.hr/en/53672"}],"source_citations":"Krešimir Galin, Archeological Findings of Musical Instruments in Yugoslavia (Narodna umjetnost, special issue 2, 1988), pp. 135-136, fig. 36; Šime Batović, in Praistorija jugoslavenskih zemalja II: Neolit (1979), p. 503, pl. LXXVII","source_display":"Krešimir Galin, Archeological Findings of Musical Instruments in Yugoslavia (Narodna umjetnost, special issue 2, 1988), pp. 135-136, fig. 36; Šime Batović, in Praistorija jugoslavenskih zemalja II: Neolit (1979), p. 503, pl. LXXVII","date_citation_display":"Batovic 1979 Jadranska Zona, p. 503 and T. LXXVII fig. 5; Marijanović et al. 2020 DOI 10.1002/oa.2859","object_display":"Small bone plate with a thin lenticular section and one biconical perforation at one end; about 68 x 29 x 6 mm at the plate's 1:1 scale. Batović reads it as probably a pottery smoother; Galin reinterprets it as a bullroarer.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"smil neolithic","display_name":"Smilčići bone plate","image":{"full":"assets/objects/SMILCICI2026-001_batovic_t77_fig5.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SMILCICI2026-001_batovic_t77_fig5_thumb.jpg","alt":"Batović’s drawing of the Smilčići bone plaque, shown face-on and in thin profile, with a broad rounded body and circular hole near one end.","credit":"Šime Batović, Praistorija jugoslavenskih zemalja II (1979), T. LXXVII fig. 5","license":"No open license stated; rehosted low-resolution figure for noncommercial research","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/praistorija-jugoslavenskih-zemalja-ii-neolit","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Batović’s face-and-profile drawing of the Smilčići bone plaque, T. LXXVII fig. 5."},"slug":"smilcici2026-001-smilcici-neolithic-site"}