{"id":"ZOTZ1964-001","label":"Tischofer perforated bone needle","people_or_site":"Tischoferhöhle (Bärenhöhle), Kaisertal near Kufstein","country_current":"Austria","historic_region":"Tyrol / Kaisergebirge / Kaisertal above Kufstein","macroregion":"Europe / Central Europe","local_name":"","source_term":"Schwirrgerät","source_language":"German","object_description":"Perforated bone objects from the 1909 Tischoferhöhle excavation include a ring-headed pin and a long pin with a broad, perforated spade-shaped head. Neither has been securely matched to the later bullroarer attribution; the spade-headed pin, whose form Zotz argued might be Upper Palaeolithic, is the likelier.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"zotz1964_tischofer_quartaer_p149n18","source_type":"archaeological_report","source_url":"https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/qu/article/view/81936","page_or_plate":"Zotz 1964/65, Quartär 15/16, p. 149 n. 18; Schlosser, Birkner and Obermaier 1909, p. 488 Fig. 3A, objects l-n; Both and Praxmarer 2024/25, pp. 136-138 and n. 65","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"candidate_only","coordinate_basis":"Tischoferhöhle (Bärenhöhle), cave register 1312/1: approximate cave-mouth anchor from OpenStreetMap cave-entrance node 717162690, version 18, corroborated by Dullinger's published WGS84 UTM cave coordinate. Not an object findspot or layer coordinate; the object's excavation position is not recoverable from the 1909 report.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"In 1909 a cave above Kufstein in the Kaisertal gave up a handful of worked bone pins, drawn at natural size on a single plate: one with a ring head, one with a flat, spade-shaped head pierced by a small drilled hole. For most of a century such pins were filed as needles and awls of the Bronze Age. Lothar Zotz questioned that date, suggesting the large spade-headed needles might belong to the cave's much older Ice Age occupation. A recent survey of Stone Age music later named Tischoferhöhle, alongside Vogelherd, as the source of one of the earliest whirled sound-makers known: flat, long, tapered, drilled for a cord, and roughly forty thousand years old. It did not say which pin. The spade-headed one remains the strongest guess.","pull_quote":"Die frühesten Funde dieser Art aus der Vogelherdhöhle auf der Schwäbischen Alb in Südwestdeutschland und der Tischoferhöhle im österreichischen Kaisergebirge datieren um 38.000 bis 32.000 v. Chr.","pull_quote_translation":"The earliest finds of this type, from Vogelherd Cave in the Swabian Jura of south-western Germany and Tischofer Cave in the Austrian Kaiser Mountains, date to around 38,000 to 32,000 BC.","pull_quote_cite":"Both and Praxmarer, \"Musik in der Steinzeit\" (2024/25), p. 137","term_gloss":"Schwirrgerät: German 'whirring device', the archaeological cover term for a bullroarer or related whirled sound-maker.","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 or 2200–1600 BC","date_qualification":"Competing Palaeolithic and Bronze Age attributions.","date_basis":"disputed_attribution","date_confidence":"low","date_citation":"both_praxmarer_2025_musik_steinzeit, p. 137; Zotz 1964/65, Quartär 15/16 p. 149 n. 18; Pechtl et al. 2025 pp. 207–209; Schlosser, Birkner and Obermaier 1909 p. 488 fig. 3A","sources":[{"citation":"Lothar Zotz, 'Die Aurignac-Knochenspitzen aus der Tischoferhöhle in Tirol,' Quartär 15/16 (1964/65): 143-153, at p. 149 n. 18; Max Schlosser, Ferdinand Birkner and Hugo Obermaier, Die Bären- oder Tischoferhöhle im Kaisertal bei Kufstein (1909), p. 488, fig. 3A; Arnd Adje Both and Michael Praxmarer, 'Musik in der Steinzeit' (2024/25), pp. 136-138","url":"https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/qu/article/view/81936","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20250710020909/https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/qu/article/view/81936"}],"source_citations":"Lothar Zotz, 'Die Aurignac-Knochenspitzen aus der Tischoferhöhle in Tirol,' Quartär 15/16 (1964/65): 143-153, at p. 149 n. 18; Max Schlosser, Ferdinand Birkner and Hugo Obermaier, Die Bären- oder Tischoferhöhle im Kaisertal bei Kufstein (1909), p. 488, fig. 3A; Arnd Adje Both and Michael Praxmarer, 'Musik in der Steinzeit' (2024/25), pp. 136-138","source_display":"Lothar Zotz, 'Die Aurignac-Knochenspitzen aus der Tischoferhöhle in Tirol,' Quartär 15/16 (1964/65): 143-153, at p. 149 n. 18; Max Schlosser, Ferdinand Birkner and Hugo Obermaier, Die Bären- oder Tischoferhöhle im Kaisertal bei Kufstein (1909), p. 488, fig. 3A; Arnd Adje Both and Michael Praxmarer, 'Musik in der Steinzeit' (2024/25), pp. 136-138","date_citation_display":"Both Praxmarer 2025 Musik Steinzeit, p. 137; Zotz 1964/65, Quartär 15/16 p. 149 n. 18; Pechtl et al. 2025 pp. 207–209; Schlosser, Birkner and Obermaier 1909 p. 488 fig. 3A","object_display":"Perforated bone objects from the 1909 Tischoferhöhle excavation include a ring-headed pin and a long pin with a broad, perforated spade-shaped head. Neither has been securely matched to the later bullroarer attribution; the spade-headed pin, whose form Zotz argued might be Upper Palaeolithic, is the likelier.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"tischoferh hle","display_name":"Tischofer perforated bone needle","image":{"full":"assets/objects/DIET2016-007_man_74482_taypamart.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/DIET2016-007_man_74482_taypamart_thumb.jpg","alt":"A Magdalenian antler plaque from La Roche de Birol, engraved with panels of parallel lines and pierced near one end.","credit":"Musée d'Archéologie Nationale, MAN 74482; photo Marie-Lan Taÿ Pamart","license":"CC BY 4.0","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rhombus_from_La_Roche_cave_MAN_74482.jpg","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Magdalenian perforated antler plaque from La Roche de Birol","pool_id":"paleolithic-laroche-magdalenian","auto_assigned":true},"slug":"zotz1964-001-tischoferhohle-barenhohle-kaisertal-near-kufstein"}