The Bullroarer Atlas

CASTELLUCCIO2026-001 - archaeological find

Castelluccio bossed bone plaque

Italy - Val di Noto - province of Syracuse, Sicily - Europe - Mediterranean

Archaeological datec. 2150–1650 BCEarly Bronze Age Castelluccio-facies grave context; object not directly dated.

Function not recorded Candidate only

Castelluccio tomb 13 bossed-bone plaque, Museo Paolo Orsi inv. 8852.
Castelluccio tomb 13 bossed-bone plaque, Museo Paolo Orsi inv. 8852. · CC BY-SA 4.0 Image source

osso a globuli Italian / English

Source term: osso a globuli / bossed bone plaque

osso a globuli (Italian): 'bossed bone', the Sicilian Early Bronze Age carved bone plaque worked with rows of raised knobs; English 'bossed bone plaque'.

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.

gli ossi a globuli potrebbero essere strumenti musicali a carattere rituale del tipo 'rombo' (bull roarer)

the bossed bones could be ritual musical instruments of the 'rombo' (bullroarer) type

Duccio Belgiorno, quoted in Crescimanno, 'Ossi a globuli di Castelluccio - Noto (SR)', Preistoria in Italia
Object
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
Not recorded.
Map confidence
medium - 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.
Source location
Page references

Preistoria in Italia object record, image 'osso n. 1'; Brandenburg 2018 conference program p. 2; Nicoletti 2019, Incontri 7(28), pp. 18-22

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