{"id":"WINDL1996-001","label":"Schletz cattle-scapula plate","people_or_site":"Asparn/Zaya-Schletz fortified final-LBK settlement; Schnitt 9, Grube 163","country_current":"Austria","historic_region":"Weinviertel / Lower Austria, Asparn an der Zaya-Schletz","macroregion":"Europe / Central Europe","local_name":"","source_term":"Schwirrknochen / Schwirrblatt","source_language":"German","object_description":"Flat plate cut and scraped from a cattle scapula, 10 cm long, 4.1 cm at maximum width and 2-2.9 mm thick; the lower half is elongated-oval and broadened like a scoop while the upper half narrows into a stem perforated at its end. Fnr. 599.3, excavated 1987. Fehlmann's Taf. 28 draws front, back, side and section at 1:1. The surface is poorly preserved, with no polish and no diagnostic manufacture or use-wear recorded.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"windl1996_asparn_schletz_fnr_599_3","source_type":"archaeological_report","source_url":"https://doi.org/10.25365/thesis.1949","page_or_plate":"Fehlmann 2008, printed pp. 28 and 166-167 with n. 840, Taf. 28; Pomberger 2018, p. 8; Windl 1996, p. 27, Taf. 10; Fnr. 599.3, Schnitt 9, Grube 163","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Settlement anchor for the fortified Linearbandkeramik site at Asparn an der Zaya-Schletz, Lower Austria; not a coordinate for Schnitt 9 or Grube 163.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Someone in the last generations of the Linear Pottery culture cut a plate out of a cow's shoulder blade, ten centimetres long, no thicker than three millimetres, and drilled a single hole through the narrow stem at its top. It was thrown into a rubbish pit at Schletz, the fortified village in Lower Austria better known for the dead in its ditch, and dug up again in 1987. The thing is broad and curved like a small scoop, and the archaeologist who catalogued it lists pendant, whirling bone, spoon and scoop side by side. Helmut Windl thought it a whirling bone and cast a copy, which hummed when he swung it; a generation later Beate Maria Pomberger made her own and measured the note, down at the bottom edge of hearing.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"Schwirrknochen: German 'whirring bone'; Schwirrblatt, 'whirring blade' - the archaeological German terms for a bullroarer.","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. 5000 BC","date_qualification":"Final-LBK refuse-pit context; object not directly dated.","date_basis":"site_horizon","date_confidence":"medium","date_citation":"fehlmann2008_asparn_schletz, pp. 166–167 and Taf. 28; Patterson et al. 2025, Social and genetic diversity in first farmers of central Europe","sources":[{"citation":"Daniela Fehlmann, Die Knochen-, Zahn- und Geweihartefakte der linearbandkeramischen Siedlung Asparn/Zaya-Schletz (NÖ), University of Vienna diploma thesis (2008), pp. 28, 166-167, n. 840, Taf. 28","url":"https://doi.org/10.25365/thesis.1949"},{"citation":"Beate Maria Pomberger, “Basstöne im Neolithikum? Weitere Forschungen zu musikalischen Hörgewohnheiten im mittleren Donauraum,” Beiträge zum Tag der Niederösterreichischen Landesarchäologie (2018), pp. 8-18, at p. 8"},{"citation":"Helmut Windl, Rätsel um Gewalt und Tod vor 7000 Jahren: eine Spurensicherung (1996), p. 27, Taf. 10, via Fehlmann 2008"}],"source_citations":"Daniela Fehlmann, Die Knochen-, Zahn- und Geweihartefakte der linearbandkeramischen Siedlung Asparn/Zaya-Schletz (NÖ), University of Vienna diploma thesis (2008), pp. 28, 166-167, n. 840, Taf. 28; Beate Maria Pomberger, “Basstöne im Neolithikum? Weitere Forschungen zu musikalischen Hörgewohnheiten im mittleren Donauraum,” Beiträge zum Tag der Niederösterreichischen Landesarchäologie (2018), pp. 8-18, at p. 8; Helmut Windl, Rätsel um Gewalt und Tod vor 7000 Jahren: eine Spurensicherung (1996), p. 27, Taf. 10, via Fehlmann 2008","source_display":"Daniela Fehlmann, Die Knochen-, Zahn- und Geweihartefakte der linearbandkeramischen Siedlung Asparn/Zaya-Schletz (NÖ), University of Vienna diploma thesis (2008), pp. 28, 166-167, n. 840, Taf. 28; Beate Maria Pomberger, “Basstöne im Neolithikum? Weitere Forschungen zu musikalischen Hörgewohnheiten im mittleren Donauraum,” Beiträge zum Tag der…","date_citation_display":"Fehlmann 2008 Asparn Schletz, pp. 166–167 and Taf. 28; Patterson et al. 2025, Social and genetic diversity in first farmers of central Europe","object_display":"Flat plate cut and scraped from a cattle scapula, 10 cm long, 4.1 cm at maximum width and 2-2.9 mm thick; the lower half is elongated-oval and broadened like a scoop while the upper half narrows into a stem perforated at its end. Fnr. 599.3, excavated 1987. Fehlmann's Taf. 28 draws front, back, side and section at 1:1. The surface is poorly preserved, with no polish and no diagnostic manufacture or use-wear recorded.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"asparn","display_name":"Schletz cattle-scapula plate","image":{"full":"assets/objects/WINDL1996-001_asparn_schletz_taf28.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/WINDL1996-001_asparn_schletz_taf28_thumb.jpg","credit":"Daniela Fehlmann, Die Knochen-, Zahn- und Geweihartefakte der linearbandkeramischen Siedlung Asparn/Zaya-Schletz (thesis, 2008), Taf. 28","license":"No open license stated","source_page":"https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The cattle-scapula plate from Schletz, drawn front, back, in profile and in section."},"slug":"windl1996-001-asparn-zaya-schletz-fortified-final-lbk-settlement-schnitt-9-grube-163"}