PREHISTORIC ART. 551 



The only mention by Dennis of music or musical instruments as hav- 

 ing been found in Etruria is that of — 



A singular spear or rod with a number of movable disks which might have been 

 rattled together so as to keep time, and Avhich, as it was found in connection with 

 armor and weapons, seems to mark it for military use and may have served as an 

 accompaniment to a band. A similar instrument was found in the neighborhood 

 which had on its top the figure of a naked man dancing. ' 



This describes the tintinnabulura which was in use in different parts 

 of the eastern hemisphere in i^rehistoric times. This instrument is 

 figured and described in De Mortillet's "Musee Prehistorique"^ and in 

 Wilson's "Swastika"^ as found from India to the Swiss Lake dwellings. 



There have been several specimens, the handiwork of prehistoric 

 man, found in his graves or stations, cited by authors on music, not 

 themselves archaeologists, under the supposition that these were musical 

 instruments; but this is only a hypothesis and subject to confirmation 

 by future discovery. The Archaeological Journal, 1864, reports the 

 discovery of a bone which Professor Owen x)ronounced to be that of 

 the Irish elk. It was found in a moat at Desmond Castle, Ireland, and 

 was thought to have formed part of a musical instrument, notably the 

 Irish lyra. The uncertainty of this contention is apparent when it is 

 noted that other persons equally, and perhaps better, qualified to judge, 

 gave it as their opinion that it formed part of a crossbow. Others 

 have reported the tusks or teeth of cave bear, dog, and other animals, 

 found with holes drilled, one can now almost say with certainty, for 

 suspension, but the musicians have tried to convert them into whistles. 

 This they do by saying that to stop the hole on the opposite side and 

 blow as in the cylinder of a key it will make a whistling sound. 



Other individuals have supposed that pieces of hard stone, notably 

 jade, with one or more holes drilled therein, were used as musical 

 instruments, because when suspended and struck, they gave forth a 

 sonorous sound. This is not impossible, but it is improbable. 



There are in the United States !N"ational Museum scores of objects of 

 jade which have been sawed and otherwise elaborately carved and 

 worked, and which have been drilled with one or two holes. (Plates 

 39, 40.) It also has, as does every other collection, gorgets and so-called 

 ceremonial objects, drilled as for suspension, all of which are, to a cer- 

 tain extent, sonorous and will emit a musical tone when struck; but the 

 same thing is equally true of any reasonably large flake or blade of 

 flint or obsidian. The large chalcedonic spearheads from Arkansas, 

 the flint, rhyolite, and chalcedonic leaf shaped implements will like- 

 wise emit a sonorous sound when suspended and struck. It is evident 



'Dennis, Etruria, II, p. 444. «Fig. 1230. spago 799, fig. 29. 



