In an article co-authored with his colleague Margarita Díaz-Andreu, the University of Barcelona researcher argues that 12 large shell trumpets found in Neolithic settlements and mines in Catalonia – and dated to between the late fifth and early fourth millennia BC – may have been used as long-distance communication devices and as rudimentary musical instruments.
The fact that the shells appeared to have been collected after the Charonia lampas sea snails within them had died suggests they had been gathered for non-culinary purposes, just as the removal of the pointed tip of the shells indicates they were used as trumpets.
“These are basically among the first instruments – or pieces of sound technology – that we know of throughout all human history,” he says. “They work by the vibrations of your lips and the way you produce sound with them is very similar to modern-day brass instruments, such as trumpets and trombones; the shells are their most ancient ancestors.”
In their article, published in the journal Antiquity, he and Díaz-Andreu posit that the shell trumpets may have been used “as communication tools, either between different communities inhabiting the region, or between these settlements and individuals working in the surrounding agricultural landscape”. They suggest the conches could also have been used by workers in different galleries of the variscite mines where six of the shells were found.
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Shells found in Spain could be among oldest known musical instruments
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/dec/02/neolithic-conch-like-shell-spain-catalonia-discovery-musical-instrumentsIn an article co-authored with his colleague Margarita Díaz-Andreu, the University of Barcelona researcher argues that 12 large shell trumpets found in Neolithic settlements and mines in Catalonia – and dated to between the late fifth and early fourth millennia BC – may have been used as long-distance communication devices and as rudimentary musical instruments.
The fact that the shells appeared to have been collected after the Charonia lampas sea snails within them had died suggests they had been gathered for non-culinary purposes, just as the removal of the pointed tip of the shells indicates they were used as trumpets.
“These are basically among the first instruments – or pieces of sound technology – that we know of throughout all human history,” he says. “They work by the vibrations of your lips and the way you produce sound with them is very similar to modern-day brass instruments, such as trumpets and trombones; the shells are their most ancient ancestors.”
In their article, published in the journal Antiquity, he and Díaz-Andreu posit that the shell trumpets may have been used “as communication tools, either between different communities inhabiting the region, or between these settlements and individuals working in the surrounding agricultural landscape”. They suggest the conches could also have been used by workers in different galleries of the variscite mines where six of the shells were found.