music & musical instruments

Oakbank Dog Rose: A Working-model of an Iron Age Wooden Whistle from a Loch Tay Crannog

Simon Wyatt (UK)
EXARC Journal Issue 2021/1
Experimental Archaeology
In 1980 a small piece of worked wood was discovered during excavation at Oakbank crannog in Loch Tay, Scotland. It was interpreted as a whistle by Nick Dixon. While there are several other Iron Age artefacts which have been interpreted as whistles, in Britain, this is the only one currently known to the author which is made of wood. This paper describes the manufacture and sounding of a model of this Iron Age...

Experimental Research on the Neanderthal Musical Instrument from Divje Babe I Cave (Slovenia)

Matija Turk (SL) and
Giuliano Bastiani (IT)
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/3
Experimental Archaeology
11th EAC Trento 2019
***The supposition that an unusually perforated femur of a juvenile cave bear found at the Divje babe I Palaeolithic cave site in Slovenia could be a musical instrument led to heated debates. According to its archaeological context and chronostratigraphic position, if made by humans, it could only be attributed to Neanderthals...

Bottle Gourd as an Implement for the Poor in Roman Italy

Brittany Bauer (CA)
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/2
Ancient Technology
Bottle gourds, which are thought to have originated in Africa, have been collected and cultivated in Italy since antiquity for the making of vessels and utensils, as well as food, musical instruments, and fishing buoys. Columella and Pliny the Elder both write extensively about the uses of bottle gourds, yet the importance of this vegetable in antiquity is notably absent from modern scholarship...

Animal Teeth in a Late Mesolithic Woman’s Grave, Reconstructed as a Rattling Ornament on a Baby Pouch

Riitta Rainio (FI) and
Annemies Tamboer (NL)
EXARC Journal Issue 2018/1
Ancient Technology
10th EAC Leiden 2017
***In one of the Late Mesolithic graves at Skateholm, Sweden, dating from 5500–4800 BC, was buried a woman together with a newborn baby. Altogether 32 perforated wild boar (Sus scrofa) teeth, along with traces of red ochre pigment, were found in this grave. We interpreted these artefacts as a rattling ornament decorating a baby pouch...

Music

Sound with rhythm and melody produced by singing or by musical instruments.

Anatomy of Prehispanic Bells - Study of an Ancient Lost Process

Raúl Ybarra (MX)
EXARC Journal Issue 2012/1
Ancient Technology

The elaboration of bells in the Prehispanic Era was of great importance due to the special meaning attributed to them in religious ceremonies. Today, knowledge of the techniques that were used in their fabrication is scant and lacking in detail. For that reason, the objective of the present study was to carry out a morphological study of bells from western Mexico...

Fotevikens Museum (SE)

Member of EXARC
Yes

25 km south of Malmö, Sweden, you will find the Archaeological Open-Air Museum of Foteviken. Inside a city wall open toward the sea, the world’s only attempt to recreate an entire Viking Age town shows a number of streets with 23 houses and homesteads, reflecting life in a late Viking Age and early Middle Age town in 1134 AD.

25 km south of Malmö, Sweden, you will find the Archaeological Open-Air Museum of Foteviken. Inside a city wall open toward the sea, the world’s only attempt to recreate an entire Viking Age town shows a number of streets with 23 houses and homesteads...

Archeon (NL)

Member of EXARC
Yes

After 15 years of preparation, 1994 the first Dutch archaeological theme park opened in Alphen aan den Rijn, not far from The Hague, Utrecht and Amsterdam, an area which houses 6 million inhabitants. Archeon covers 10,000 years of human development in the Netherlands. From hunter-gatherers in the Stone Age and farmers in the Bronze and Iron Ages, through the Roman period and right up to everyday life in 1340 AD, “Archaeo-interpreters” show what life was like in “their time” in the 43 reconstructed buildings

Founded in 1994, Archeon covers 10,000 years of human development in the Netherlands. From hunter-gatherers in the Stone Age and farmers in the Bronze and Iron Ages, through the Roman period and right up to everyday life in 1340 AD, “Archaeo-interpreters” show what life was...