OMERZEL1998-001 - archaeological find
Potočka perforated bone point
Slovenia - Potočka zijalka - eastern Karawanks - Europe
Function not recorded
Source term: koščena konica z luknjo / brnivka
brnivka: Slovenian bullroarer or whirring sound-maker; koščena konica z luknjo: perforated bone point
A hole pierces the broad end of a long bone point from Potočka zijalka, high in the eastern Karawanks - about 35,000 years old in the literature that describes it, which would make it the oldest candidate of its kind in Slovenia and the Balkans. The perforation is human work, and the flattened, tapered blade could catch the air. Galin and Omerzel asked whether a leather cord once turned this apparent weapon into a voice like wind or thunder; nothing proves it was ever sounded. The object remains balanced between point and aerophone.
S konico, navezano na kožno vrv, pa bi lahko fosilni človek ustvarjal zvoke zelo podobne zavijanju vetrov ali grmenju.
With the point tied to a leather cord, prehistoric people could have made sounds very like the howling of wind or thunder.
Omerzel Terlep 1998:170
- Object
- Long flattened and tapered bone point, Brodar catalogue no. 75, with a single human-made hole at its broad end; exact drawing reproduced by Omerzel Terlep.
- Function
- Not recorded.
- Map confidence
- medium - Potočka zijalka cave entrance anchor; not an object find coordinate.
- Source location
Page references
printed pp. 169-170; exact drawing p. 170; Brodar 1983 no. 75