Riparo Gaban bone fish plaque

Source term: rombo sonoro

rombo sonoro = Italian for 'sounding rhomb', the standard Italian term for a bullroarer blade whirled on a cord.

High above the Adige at Trento, in the little hanging valley of Martignano, the Riparo Gaban shelter housed some of the finest bone carvers of Italy's first farming age. Among their works is a fish rendered on a bone plaque not ten centimetres long, pierced beside the eye and freckled with incised rings and strokes. Trentino's heritage office allows it two possible lives: a pendant at someone's throat, or a sounding rhomb - hung from a cord and whirled through the air until it gave out a sharp, evocative sound. The levels that yielded it date to about 4080–4040 BC.

Potrebbe essere un pendaglio o un rombo sonoro. In questo caso veniva fatto roteare nell'aria appeso ad una corda, così produceva un suono acuto e suggestivo.

It could be a pendant or a sounding rhomb. In that case it was whirled through the air hanging from a cord, producing a sharp, evocative sound.

Soprintendenza per i beni culturali, Provincia autonoma di Trento, A scuola con l'archeologia (2022), p. 6

Particulars

Object

Fish-shaped bone plaque from the Early Neolithic Gaban Group levels, 9.6 x 2.3 cm, perforated near the fish's eye and incised with rings and strokes.

Function

Prehistoric use unrecorded; officially described as a pendant or a sounding rhomb.