Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries 3-1 (November 2011)Wietske
Prummel; Hülya
Halici; Annemieke
Verbaas: The bone and antler tools from the Wijnaldum-Tjitsma terp
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5.4 Musical instruments
Musical instruments made out of bone or antler were found in small numbers in Wijnaldum-Tjitsma. One flute was made out of an ulna of a whooper or a mute swan (fig. 23). The other, unfinished flute is part of a sheep tibia. Two cattle ribs with a serrated edge were perhaps musical instruments (MacGregor 1985; Roes 1963). Sounds could be made by moving the object over a surface (figs 24 and 25). Alternative interpretations for these tools are that they were graters or coarse polishers.
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Figure 23 Flute made of the right ulna of a whooper or a mute swan, find no. 11702 Carolingian period; a. photograph, b. drawing.
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Figure 24 Cattle costa with sawn rim, possibly used as a musical instrument, find no. 2326, Carolingian period; a. photograph, b. drawing.
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Figure 25 Right cattle costa with serrated edge, possibly used to make music or sounds, find no. 1508, Merovingian period.
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Very interesting is an object made of antler, probably a tuning pin for a lyre (fig. 26). Lyres were found in early medieval sites in Britain, for example in the royal or princely graves at Sutton Hoo and Prittlewell (MacGregor 1985, 147; Carver et al. 2005, figs 88 and 99, table 21; Hirst 2004, 37). Singers of heroic verses played a lyre as they sang. The exact date of the Wijnaldum tuning pin is unknown, but it dates to the Merovingian or the Carolingian period. The tuning pin refers to musicians connected to high status people during one of these periods. Undated tuning pins were found in the terpen at Finkum, Hallum and Teerns in Friesland (Van Vilsteren 1987, 56) and in Carolingian Dorestad (Roes 1965, Plate XX).
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Figure 26 Tuning pin made of red deer antler dating to the Merovingian or the Carolingian period, find no. 2175.
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