The Bullroarer Atlas

KOCH1992-006 - archaeological find

Döberitz whirring blade

Germany - Brandenburg - Havelland, former Kreis Rathenow - Europe

Archaeological datec. 9600–4000 BCMesolithic classification only; object not individually dated.

Function not recorded

The Clanfield serrated bullroarer, shown for comparison; not the Döberitz blade (unphotographed).
Representative — not this record’s object. · The Clanfield serrated bullroarer, shown for comparison; not the Döberitz blade (unphotographed). Image source

Source term: Schwirrer / Wirbelaerophon

Schwirrer / Wirbelaerophon: German, "whirrer" and "whirled aerophone" - the archaeological terms for a bullroarer.

Döberitz sits on the Havel a few bends from Pritzerbe, whose polished, dotted bone blade is the best-known whirring device of the region. Koch's 1992 inventory files the Döberitz find as kin, unqualified, among the Mesolithic whirled aerophones of eastern Germany - but only the name survives, with no image, measurement, or account of how or where it was found.

Fundliste 7: Aerophone. Wirbelaerophone (Schwirrer) […] Mesolithikum: […] Döberitz, Kr. Rathenow […]

Find list 7: Aerophones. Whirled aerophones (bullroarers) […] Mesolithic: […] Döberitz, district of Rathenow […]

Koch 1992:132
Object
No object-level description has been recovered. Koch's find list gives the locality alone. His accompanying description of the East German Mesolithic set - the surviving pieces are bone, not wood; elongated-oval with a tendency to a streamlined form; the perforation at the one broader end; lengths between 13 and 21 cm, widths 2.0 to 2.5 cm, thickness under 0.7 cm - is stated for the group as a whole and is not a measurement of the Döberitz piece.
Function
Not recorded.
Map confidence
medium - Döberitz village anchor from public OpenStreetMap/Nominatim gazetteer data (Döberitz, Premnitz, Havelland; Premnitz lay in the former Kreis Rathenow). Locality anchor only, not a findspot; this is not the Döberitz heath west of Berlin.
Source location
Page references

printed p. 132, Fundliste 7 (Mesolithikum); group description p. 119

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