-
An Archaeo-Organological Survey of the NetherlandsAuthor(s):
Joan RimmerSource: World Archaeology, Vol. 12, No. 3, Archaeology
and Musical Instruments (Feb., 1981),pp. 233-245Published by:
Taylor & Francis, Ltd.Stable URL:
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An archaeo-organological survey of the
Netherlands
Joan Rimmer
In the Netherlands, as in most countries with some tradition of
acquiring and preserving material objects of many kinds,
instruments from archaeological sources fall into three categories;
those of native provenance, those of foreign origin which have been
found in the Netherlands and those of non-Netherlandish origin
which have been acquired by various means, including purchase. It
is the purpose of this article, in so far as space allows, to
provide a general survey of instruments in the first category.
The currently known total of instruments and soundmakers from
Netherlands soil up to about A.D. I500 is nearly 200.
Quantitatively, the north, with its comparatively dense population
in the first millennium A.D. and soils favourable to preservation,
has so far yielded more than any other region, though this may not
give a true picture of the original density of instrument use
elsewhere.
Over thirty complete or fragmentary vessel rattles of black,
pink or yellowish clay have been found in the provinces of
Friesland and Groningen. Shapes include flattened oval, double cone
and double pie-crust (there are examples of the latter from Ur, of
the early second millennium B.C.: Rimmer I969: plate III b). Some
are roughly made, some are carefully formed and decorated with
incised lines or indentations. In many cases, the pellets have
disintegrated; in others, particularly where these are about the
size of a large pea, they are well preserved. Some rattles found
during the last few decades, for example those found near Suawoude
and Bantega, can be dated to the early centuries of this era, and
this pre-christianization date, together with the size, weight and
form of many rattles, reinforces the theory that they were ritual
soundmakers. One double cone, from Finkum, has a hanging loop at
each end, presumably for suspension from the neck, and another
large one, from Hallum, has adult-size finger grips at each end,
one vertically and one horizontally placed (plate 3a). This rattle
sits comfortably between two hands, and when it is shaken precisely
a clear, dry sound is produced by the friction of the large, hard
pellets against the 5 mm-thick walls. Though the use of rattles in
social and religious ritual (as in procession and dance) is now
unfamiliar in most of Europe, in pre- and non- Christian societies
it may well have been as usual as it still is in many non-European
societies.
A few examples are hors de se'rie. From Groningen there are
possible half-rattles of inverted cup shape with a spike or stump
on top. They somewhat resemble cup cymbals
World Archaeology Volume I2 No. 3 Musical instruments
? R.K.P. I98I 0043-8243/81/I203-0233 $I.50/I
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234 Joan Rimmer
and give a dry thud when struck together, rather like half
coconuts. From Friesland come two which stand on end. One from
Bilgaard resembles a pointed egg in an eggcup, while the other,
from Hallum, is like a mushroom-shaped pepper-pot, with thirty-one
tiny perforations in the top. The latter appears to be
wheel-turned; both have a crisp sound.
Whistles and flutes
A few clay whistles have been found in the west of Friesland.
One of dark brownish-black clay, found in the old Zuiderzee port of
Staveren, was considered by Boeles (I 95 I) to be an import into
Friesland, and this seems likely. His dating between the mid-eighth
and the eleventh century, seems less likely. This whistle, and
others which are coarser and perhaps locally-made examples of the
same type, are tiny vessel and tube flutes, with spherical vessels
and tubular ducts (very long in proportion to the total length of
the instruments) set at an angle over the vessel opening. Their
sizes and proportions are similar to those of the larger Mochica
and Chimu whistles in the Haags Gemeente- museum (total lengths of
around 6o mm., tube lengths 40 mm. and tube diameter 2-3 mm.), as
is the exterior shape (plate ib and c). Other kinds of vessel and
duct flute are well known in Europe; but since evidence is lacking
for this type in first millennium A.D. Europe, its presence in a
few places on or near the coast of Friesland may be ex- plained by
importation of at least one example from post-Conquest
Latin-America, and therefore a date no earlier than the sixteenth
century.
Bone whistles which do seem to be native are tiny block-and-duct
vessel flutes. They have been found in a number of external shapes,
ranging from roughly worked antler tips (Atanassov I977: I I9 cites
a present-day example of goat horn, used as a railway whistle!) to
bone 'shoe-horns', flat 'spatulae' (plate ia) and turned tubes. The
internal tubular vessel is small in relation to the overall length
of the object; for example, a mere 30 mm. out of a total of I I4
mm. The crudest whistles have rough-cut suspension(?) notches; the
rest have either front to back and side-to-side perforations in the
lower part, that is, below the vessel area, or a sort of spindle
terminating in a stump at the bottom. There are traces of metal or
metal stain in some of the perforations and stumps.
They have been found in Friesland and elsewhere; for example in
Schokland (formerly an island in the Zuiderzee, though now part of
the Noordoostpolder), North Holland, Zeeland and coastal Brabant.
Van Vilsteren's study of the dating and function of some of them is
in the press.
A search for earlier tonal systems can be an unrewarding
exercise, given little know- ledge of the fabric of musical
activity from which they emerged. Nevertheless, the quantity and
variety of bone flutes from the north, the probable time span they
cover and the discovery of some comparable instruments elsewhere
combine to provide a certain amount of information. Apart from a
number of notched flutes which were no doubt bird lures, all these
instruments are internal block and duct flutes made from the bones
of various domestic animals, goose or swan. A few lack
finger-holes; some of these have suspension notches like the antler
whistles. A small flute from Oosterlittens, with one finger-hole,
was perhaps a bird lure; a thirteenth-fourteenth-century example
found
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An archaeo-organological survey of the Netherlands 235
in Alkmaar has been identified as similar to golden plover lures
still in use in North Holland (Cordfunke, I975). With one five-hole
exception, all are one-hand flutes and in some cases offsetting of
one or more finger-holes indicates whether they were right- or
left-hand flutes. A broken flute from Stiens, listed by Crane
(I972: 30) as a five-holer, in fact has three cut finger-holes plus
a small hole drilled iz mm. below the remains of the window. Of the
present five holes on a flute from Feerwerd tested by Megaw (I968:
338), the bottom three are carefully and identically cut while the
upper two - presumably later additions - are quite different in
shape, the top one very shallow and the one below it deeply and
crudely gashed. In a few cases, the position of the head in
relation to the finger-holes suggests that the flute was played
from the side of the mouth, as is still the case in parts of
eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Given the non-scientific circumstances in which most flutes were
uncovered (Boersma I972: 9I-I09) and their wide distribution (figs.
i and z) it is difficult to establish chrono- logy - several types
must have been in use simultaneously - or to suggest social or
.. .~ r~
Ferwerd1 *Hoogebehlntumt >\ /1 , v~~~~~~Haflum]Mt!we
w/11r"_ /tzinktim Hl **3 Wartfum!f
CoIJd*Stiens Dokk ROttum
*Mjnaldu m JeISum
( *E^alge
F -eed
- f ; pese
m
.LFra,neke,- Leku QLeeuwaden+Hardegarljp I
-ered - tLpesr y
~~~~Teern,S d <
* Oostum uw
Deirnum *Suaweade + ) Adu rd X tAchlum X HatsumA X1eaf
U Sp~~~Mea ldtiM Jensum 9; '
0 W{tmars W erledittens Oosterutte,Es | I u wsr F ra e * Kubad
Wo Tl wdsegar\E
.LWorhnm H*ttewderd
X ~ ~~~ ~~~ ~ H\su'
Huzvn B-gad F Hh~~~~~~deI ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Sawud dur
-,nn n, winsum
witmarsu ITheeProvittncs Oosterlitensln an rnne.IC vse ate;
oewite
( tyes); 3bone ~Kbattrry
*Bantega
.2 -3 x 4 *.5 .16 17 A 8 9 9 %
Fig'ure i The Provinces of Friesland and Groningen. z clay
vessel rattles; 2 bone whistles (4 types); 3 bone block-and-duct
flutes (15S types); 4 bone reedpipe; ? triple-coiled clay horns; 6
clay whistles; 7 hornpipe parts; 8 wooden reedpipe; 9 jews'
harps
occupational differentiations related to type. From the later
end of the probable time span, c. fourteenth-fifteenth century,
there are several instruments which resemble the gar kleine
Plockfl6tlein with three finger-holes and a thumb-hole which was
illustrated and described as late as the seventeenth century by
Praetorius (I6I9: 34 and plate 9).
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236 Joan Rimmer
Between the later, lathe-turned instruments with drilled
finger-holes and some very crudely hand-cut instruments, these
flutes exhibit many different degrees of skill and care in the
selection and preparation of bone, the placing and shaping of the
head, window and labium or voicing lip, and of the cutting or
drilling of finger-holes; also in tuning implications. Two were
found in I920 in a terp cemetery at Aalsum in Groningen; whether
they had been buried with their owners is now impossible to
establish. In 1973, in the course of levelling the remains of an
early terp, Weakens, near Winsum in Fries- land, one was found
along with remains of cheese-making equipment. Were some of these
bone flutes for the self-delectation of farmers and dairy women or
had they also a signal function connected with fairly large scale
cattle-keeping? Boeles (195I: 214) quoted, from the eighth-century
registers of Fulda, cattle holdings in Friesland of up to one
hundred beasts.
Only a brief typological breakdown of these flutes can be given
here:
A (i) Two finger-holes set low on a tube c. i5o mm. long. (ii)
Two finger-holes and thumb-hole set low on the tube (in later
English terminology
tabor-pipe, German schwegel). B (i) Two finger-holes set in the
middle of the tube; for example as in one from
Hallum in Friesland, 68 mm. and 87 mm. from the bottom of a tube
I84 mm. long (plate 2a). The fundamental note series here would
comprise a largish interval from the lowest note (all holes
covered) to the next (lower hole open) and a smaller one from that
to the next (both holes open). If played on fundamentals, one
musical possibility is of touched drone on the lowest note. An
example of this type from Staveren can be dated ? A.D.
I000-1300.
(ii) Three finger-holes set in the middle of the tube; interval
implications as in B (i). A flute of this kind, of C. A.D. I I00,
was found on Walcheren in Zeeland (Trimpe Burger I960-I: 207).
C (i) Short, flutes, II3 mm.-I3o mm. long, with three
finger-holes. A late example of this type, from Valkum in
Groningen, has a forward-cut beaked head.
(ii) Short, frequently thick flutes of similar lengths with
three finger-holes and thumb- hole. This is the category most
discussed hitherto (Megaw I968: 34I-6; Vellekoop I966; Brade I975).
A late, lathe-turned example from Warffum (a right-hand flute) has
a back-cut beaked head and finger-holes drilled into the bore at an
angle. The idea that a bottom rear hole which is found in some
instruments was a second thumb-hole (Brade I975: 30) seems to be
based on a misunderstanding of the nature of instruments with two
thumb-holes and of the practicalities of vertical flute playing. In
the Netherlands, rear and lateral holes (sometimes quite small) set
very close to the lower end are found on a number of instruments
with three or four holes, both shorter and longer and of bird and
animal bone. At least in the case of duplicate lateral holes, they
must have been for suspension, for a string to sling the instrument
from the neck; possibly all were suspension holes. The instrument
type which does have two thumb-holes, the arigot or French
flageolet, has in fact a pair of tabor-pipe settings in one tube,
each hand having two finger- holes and one thumb-hole. A possible
analogy for some of the short, fat bone flutes seems to be the
north Spanish one-hand flute called fluviol. Some modern
-
An archaeo-organological survey of the Netherlands 237
forms have side keys and an extended, unfingered lower length
carrying three vent holes. Leaving these aside, however, it is a
short flute with three frontal and two rear holes disposed in the
same manner as in some of the Netherlandish bone instruments, and
only a centimetre or so longer than these. Its frontal holes are
closed by three fingers and the upper rear hole by the thumb, while
the bottom rear hole rests on and is closed by the upper surface of
the little finger (Baines I96I: 228 and fig. 54f for a
thirteenth-century depiction with tabor see Gardner n.d.: 8-9). The
bone flutes sit comfortably in the hand with the little finger
under (in one case towards the side of) the bottom of the tube.
D (i) Three finger-holes set on the lower half of a tube 150-200
mm. long. One of the Aalsum cemetery flutes and the
cheese-associated Winsum flute are of this type. Some are of bird
bone with holes on the concave surface.
(ii) Three finger-holes and one thumb-hole set on the lower half
of the tube. These are rare; on these longer flutes, it seems that
extension to four holes was more usual on the front.
E Four finger-holes. These occur in animal and bird bone.
Bird-bone flutes are generally longer, C. 210-230 mm. and the
finger-holes, on concave or convex surface, are set low on the tube
(plate 2C). Animal-bone flutes are shorter, c. 150- i6o mm. (though
one from Loppersum is I90 mm.) and have finger-holes set slightly
higher on the tube. A small one from Farmsum, made from the tibia
of a long-legged sheep, seems to have been fashioned in imitation
of a bird-bone flute.
F Four finger-holes and thumb-hole. The second instrument from
the Aalsum terp cemetery is the only example of this so far.
G Five finger-holes. There is one example from Britsum.
Bone flutes have been found elsewhere; for example, in
Emmeloord, on the former island of Schokland, in Deventer and
Zwolle in the east, in Heerlen in the south, near the great rivers
and in Zeeland (fig. 2 and Roes I963; for others in northern Europe
see Brade 1975; Sevag 1973: 79-83).
No doubt bone and wood flutes were in use contemporaneously in
later times. A well- preserved wooden tabor-pipe from the first
half of the fifteenth-century was recovered, along with personal
and domestic objects, from a disused well in Goedereede on the
island of Goeree (Olivier I979). At 240 mm., it is 90 mm. longer
than the largest bone example and it has holes in the side of the
head, presumably for bolting the block in place (plate 2d). Remains
of a slightly larger instrument from Aardenburg in Zeeuwse
Vlanderen date from the second half of the fourteenth century
(Rimmer I98I). From Dordrecht in the Rhine Delta region came two
wooden flutes - a tiny instrument, only 8o mm. long, from c. A.D.
i6oo (Sarfatij 1978: 308 and afb, 30) and the late fourteenth- or
early fifteenth-century recorder found in the ruins of the Huis te
Merwede, which has already been described elsewhere and a copy made
(Weber 1976). In connection with the fact that intonation and tone
quality in the copy were satisfactory only when the bore was
reduced to 8 mm. at the lower end (the original foot joint is
missing), it is interesting to note that one of the bone flutes
from Blija (plate 2b) is almost closed at the bottom.
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238 Joan Rimmer
f~~~~~~~~~A A
"V . (
aD1 2 t3 b 4 Y 5 c6 =7 t8 sL 9
- 10 9R 11 ---12 -13 - 14 a 15 w 16 m 17
Figure 2 The Netherlands except Friesland and Groningen. i
Jangling rings; 2 bells; 3 stick sistra and loose jingles; 4 goblet
cymbals; 5 tuba mouthpiece; 6 clay rattles; 7 double reedpipes; 8
bronze horns; 9 clay horns; io clay trumpet; ii jews' harps; I2
bone whistles; I3 bone flutes; I4 wooden flutes (3 types); I5 lyre
bridges; i6 panpipes; I7 duct panpipes
Reedpipes Reedpipes of various kinds have been found. A 2I5 mm.
long pipe of very pale bird bone, found at Hatsum in Friesland, has
six finger-holes. The highest, which is perhaps a later addition,
is round while the others are oval and set in the lower half of the
tube; the disposition is close to that on the bird-bone block and
duct flutes. The pair of pipes of eagle bone, c. 26o mm. long,
which were found in a fire pit of the first century A.D. at Mook on
the Maas, came from a different tradition of pipe-making, probably
of more easterly origin. There are six holes on each pipe, the
lowest being 8o mm. from the bottom and the rest fairly evenly
spaced over the whole tube (Oomen I968; 1971; Rimmer I975).
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An archaeo-organological survey of the Netherlands 239
They may have been played as parallel pipes, fingered right
across both simultane- ously, though the slight flare at the lower
ends suggests otherwise. If played as divergent pipes, only four of
the holes could be covered in each hand. The same questions arise
with the two pairs of five-hole bone pipes from the Avar cemetery
at Alattyan, though the flaring part of the bone was not
incorporated into these (Kovrig I963: I73-6). Copies of the Mook
pipes, equipped with double reeds, yielded g bb c d e g, octave and
fingering method unspecified (Oomen I968: 59). The now shrunken
remains of a seven- hole wooden reedpipe were found in a terp at
Blija. Thought to be eighth-eleventh century A.D., this instrument
has some similarities of proportion with the Mook reed- pipes.
Present length is nearly 250 mm. and the lower end terminates in a
gentle flare. The lowest of the six frontal holes is nearly 70 mm.
up from the bottom and the other five are evenly spaced over the
rest of the tube (the thumb-hole is slightly higher than the
highest finger-hole). The lowest frontal hole was no doubt a vent
hole; it is set in the middle of the lowest of the decorated raised
blocks which elsewhere on the pipe are situated between the
finger-holes. The back of the pipe is rounded while the front is
flat, and the top is shaped so that a reed or reed-carrier can be
fitted over it. The bore is at present c. 5 mm. at the top and 6-7
mm. at the bottom, i.e. only minutely conical. This early example
of a western reedpipe seems closer to the cylindrical duduk-balaban
family than to the strongly conical Islamic zurnas (though this
name is used in some regions for cylindrical instruments also) and
later Western shawms (Rimmer 1976: Vertkov 1975: 29).
Four wooden sections of hornpipes, with three finger-holes, have
been found in Friesland. Now lacking reed fittings and terminal
horns though the fitting points for these are clear, they are
between 107 and I20 mm. long, externally rectangular and with
raised sections between the finger-holes, like the reedpipe (plate
2e). Bores are c. 6 mm. except in the now shrunken piece from
Achlum which is probably of the same date as the reedpipe from
Blija. This may have been part of a double hornpipe; it is
decorated along one side but the other is plain. Later west
European forms were larger (for example those depicted in Bernardo
Daddi's Nativity now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence) but the
rectangular exterior and stepped front are found as late as the
eighteenth century in one Welsh instrument (Harrison and Rimmer
I964: plates 77-8). Some single forms of the Russian zhaleika still
have only three finger-holes, while even large forms like the
modernized Lithuanian birbine clearly show two distinct one-hand
units (Vertkov 1975: IOI-2). It is noteworthy that these Frisian
hornpipes seem to date from the time of intensive Frisian-Baltic
trading.
Other instruments
Many of the soundmakers and instruments from the regions of the
great rivers and further south are of a different character.
Earliest are four bronze bolts for axle caps, from the remains of a
four-wheel, two-horse chariot found in I897 in a seventh-century
B.C. Hallstatt burial on the Wezelsche Berg, near Wijchen. Every
bolt carries a grid with three uprights; each upright has an
anthropomorphic finial and an integral loop to which a single ring
carrying three more rings is attached - a total of forty-eight
jangling rings,
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240 Joan Rimmer
some of which did not survive (de Laet 1974: 402; see Atanassov
1977: 50 for a present- day axle-attached soundmaker). The Viking
rangle is based on the same principle (see Lund, this journal).
From post-Roman times come other metallic instruments. In a
sarcophagus of the fourth century A.D., from the Grutberg in
Nijmegen, were fragments of several stick sistra - as they may be
described - along with the remains of a girl of about ten years.
They were solid wooden sticks, about 380 mm. long, with a hand grip
in the middle and cut-out sections in each half into which a pair
of heavy (ioo grams) bronze jingles of unequal size were set on a
transverse rod (plate 3c). Similar objects have been found in a
sarcophagus in Hessloch in Germany, and loose jingles in the grave
of a young girl in Kaiseraugst in Switzerland (van Buchem 1950) and
with mid-third century burnt remains in Brunssum in Limburg
(Bogaers I966). Were these instruments used by professional child
dancers or entertainers? They are heavy and un-childish (see
Atanassov 1977: 57 for a simple sistrum used in eastern Bulgaria).
Thinner bronze jingles, stray finds discovered during work on the
railways in Nijmegen, may be of later date.
One of a pair of sarcophagi of the sixth century A.D., found on
the Hunnerberg in Nijmegen in i842, contained what appears to be a
pair of goblet- or bell-cymbals (Leemans I842: i6 calls them
bells). About 55 mm. high, with solid handles and sharply flared
rims, they are decorated inside and out with incised and raised
lines and they have no trace of clappers or of fixing for them
(plate 3b). Distant as they may be in space, analogies are perhaps
with instruments frequently depicted on the Hindu-Javanese temples
at Barabadur and Prambanan (Kunst I968: 48-53), some of which are
about the same size as the Hunnerberg pieces though most are
larger, and with some still used in parts of south-east Asia. These
instruments, held upwards or downwards, are struck together at a
single point on the rim, not clashed vertically or horizontally
like bowl- or plate-shaped cymbals.
Clay vessel rattles from gravefields of the mid-first to
mid-third centuries A.D. in the Nijmegen area have heads of deer,
cockerel or possibly dove set on squat, ovoid bodies, and large,
flat tails (perhaps as finger grips?), vertical in the case of the
birds and hori- zontal in the deer. They are up to ioo mm. high and
long, and it is possible that, like the northern vessel rattles,
they were ritual soundmakers of some kind. One with well- modelled
antlers on a deer head was in a pre-A.D. 70 grave associated with
large pots, dishes, ewer, and a lamp, among other objects
(Vermeulen 1932). Eleventh-century clay rattles from Schinveld are
maracca-shape (Bruijn I964).
Many Roman-period bells have come from the Nijmegen district,
particularly from the great villa site at Plasmolen. In four main
categories, they range in height from 130 mm. to little more than
2o mm. Some must have been cowbells; the shape has been retained to
the present day. Others were no doubt for sheep or goats and some
of the tiny bells must have been for horse harness. One example
still attached to part of a harness is in the Rheinisches
Landesmuseum in Bonn (Klar 1971: 329 and this journal). A bronze
mouth-piece of the mid-second to mid-third century was found in a
ditch system at Wijk bij Duurstede (plate 4b). It has a back-turned
rim (internal diameter I90 mm.), is cup-shaped internally with a
cylindrical tube 4-4 mm. in diameter (Verwers 1975: I 13- I4). It
does not match exactly with other known Roman mouthpieces though it
must belong to a tuba, bucina or even cornu rather than lituus
(Baines 1976: 57ff. and plate 2; Klar, this journal).
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An archaeo-organological survey of the Netherlands 241
A much worn and repaired instrument which has long been regarded
locally as a Roman lituus was washed up by the sea in i6i8 at the
place known as de Oude Wereld, on the island of Goeree (Pleyte
I9OI: 85-6; Trimpe Burger I960-I: 20I-2). The few known Roman
instruments and fragments of this type are of sheet bronze. This
one is of thick cast bronze, made in two parts with an octagonal
hooked bell (plate 4a). It is 675 mm. long and weighs 2 kg. 68g. It
has two slinging loops, like the Roman lituus, and the integral
mouthpiece is funnel-shaped internally, 8z2 mm. internal diameter
at the rim and about 8 mm. deep. This is indeed a lituoid horn, but
seems likely to be post A.D. IwoO rather than Roman. The upper part
of what must have been a similar instrument was found during
excavation of the foundations of the Nieuwburg, near Oudorp (now
part of Alkmaar) in West Friesland; when found, it was thought
perhaps to be the blowpipe of a bellows (Renaud I97I). The castle
was built about A.D. 1290 and destroyed in 1517, and the horn
fragment and other finds are dateable within that period. Lituoid
metal horns were used even later in the Netherlands. Two splendid
brass dijkshoorns, dating from the first half of the seventeenth
century and used on the river Lek to give warning of rising water
levels and such emergencies, have the upturned bell (Groenveld et
al. 1979: 50).
Clay horns of several kinds have been found. A short (360 mm.)
slightly curved instrument, manufactured locally about A.D. I200,
was found along with other ceramic articles at Schinveld (Bruijn
I962-3). A coiled clay horn was found in the Wieringermeer in West
Friesland, while remains of two triple-coiled horns of pipe-clay -
so-called processiehoorns - came from a terp in Ezinge and a
monastery site in Warffum, both in Groningen. They date from the
sixteenth century and probably had a total length of about 2 m. The
Ezinge instrument, probably made in Aachen or Cologne, is covered
with bronze-coloured paint and the narrow bell carries an oval
stamp in which a Virgin and Child stand in a sickle moon (Boersma
et al. I966: no. 72). A short, curved clay horn with a colourless
lead glaze, also from Ezinge, cannot at present be traced. A folded
trumpet of pipe-clay - a so-called pelgrimshoorn - was found during
excavations on the site of the Abbey of Middelburg in Zeeland.
Dating from about 1500, it carries a circular stamp with the sign
IHS (Trimpe Burger I967). Fragments of others come from various
sites in South Holland and Brabant.
Of the several sets of clay duct panpipes from the great rivers
region, that found at Velp before I887 (Land I894) cannot now be
traced. A six-pipe example found at Cothen is probably fifteenth or
sixteenth century (van Tent 1976: 66) though the type may go back
to Roman times (Borger 1977: 49). Remains of a miniature five-tube
clay panpipe were found in 197I near Eindhoven. They bear the
makers name in Latin (incomplete on the surviving fragments) and
this tiny piece was perhaps a votive offering
(Bogaers 1975). Two finished amber lyre bridges (Roes I965: 45-6
and plate I9: 140-I) and one
unfinished example, all probably eighth-ninth-century A.D., were
stray finds from the site of Dorestad, which seems to have been a
centre for the import and working of amber. Like most surviving
European lyre bridges, they have grooves for six strings; in the
unfinished bridge, the outer two are set minutely lower than the
rest. The feet have not been cut in this example. Work must have
been abandoned when a sizeable fracture appeared on one side; it
would not have been started on an already fractured piece of
amber.
-
242 Joan Rimmer
Jews harps of bronze or iron and of various types have been
found all over the country; Leeuwarden in Friesland (a recent
find), Deventer in Overijssel, Amsterdam and Delft, along the great
rivers and in the Delta region, in the Zeeland islands and in
Maastricht. Many come from urban areas and some can be safely dated
between the early fourteenth century and the sixteenth century (van
Sprang 1973; Ypey 1976-7; Baart 1977: 476-7). The exact provenance
of five bronze Jews harps from the Nijmegen district is not known,
and until more detailed comparative and technological studies have
been made of all the older western European Jews harps, one cannot
be sure whether or not these five instruments are Gallo-Roman.
Acknowledgements
For reasons of space, no inventory numbers or present
whereabouts have been given for the objects discussed. A register
of all instruments from archaeological sources in the Netherlands
(including those not mentioned or illustrated here) is in
preparation and will incorporate this information. Thanks are due
to many people in the Netherlands, some of them professionally
attached to museums and other institutions, some of them private
owners of single instruments or collections. Without their goodwill
and co- operation, it would have been difficult to make even as
brief a survey as this. In thanking two - Wil Mank and Henk
Bloklander, both of the Rijksdiesnt voor het Oudheidkundig
Bodemonderzoek in Amersfoort - I thank them all. I also thank the
Faculty of Letters and the Institute of Musicology of the
University of Utrecht for subsidizing the necessary research,
without which it would not have been possible.
Instituut voor Muziekwetenschap '22 V TAR(R 7;;,;se.tpt
TTtfrr.t
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c. io0 mm. (Photo: G. GAdefors, Visby)
(a) (C)
(b) (d)
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Abstract
Rimmer, Joan
An archaeo-organological survey of the Netherlands
Musical instruments and soundmakers have been found in the
Netherlands in archaeological sources from the seventh century B.C.
to the sixteenth century A.D. From the northern terpen come clay
rattles (early first millennium A.D.), vertical bone flutes and
whistles of many types (from a considerable time span) and bone and
wood reedpipes. Bone flutes and whistles also come from the eastern
Netherlands, the great river region, the Zeeland islands, the Delta
region and south Limburg. Bone reedpipes (first century A.D.) were
found near Nijmegen, also jangling rings for chariot axles (seventh
century B.C.), stick sistra (fourth century A.D.), goblet cymbals
(sixth century A.D.), clay rattles (mid-first to mid-third century
A.D.) and many Roman-period bells. Clay duct panpipes and amber
lyre bridges come from the great rivers, lituoid bronze
-
An archaeo-organological survey of the Netherlands 245
horns from South and North Holland, straight and coiled clay
horns and trumpet from Groningen, South Limburg and Walcheren. Jews
harps of bronze or iron have been found all over the country; some
are fourteenth-sixteenth century, others may be Gallo-Roman. From
late fourteenth-century Dordrecht came a wooden recorder. From
Aardenburg there is a wooden tabor-pipe of the second half of the
fourteenth century, and from Goedereede, another from the early
fifteenth century.
Article Contentsp. [233]p. 234p. 235p. 236p. 237p. 238p. 239p.
240p. 241p. 242[unnumbered][unnumbered]p. 243p. 244p. 245
Issue Table of ContentsWorld Archaeology, Vol. 12, No. 3,
Archaeology and Musical Instruments (Feb., 1981), pp. 231-336Volume
InformationFront MatterThe Archaeology of Musical Instruments:
Editorial Note [pp. 231-232]An Archaeo-Organological Survey of the
Netherlands [pp. 233-245]The Archaeomusicology of Scandinavia [pp.
246-265]Archaeology and Musical Instruments in Poland [pp.
266-272]The Conch in Prehistory: Pottery, Stone and Natural [pp.
273-279]Prehistoric Brass Instruments [pp. 280-286]Music in Ancient
Mesopotamia and Egypt [pp. 287-297]The Reconstruction of Ancient
Greek auloi [pp. 298-302]Reconstructing the Greek Tortoise-Shell
Lyre [pp. 303-312]The Archaeology of Musical Instruments in Germany
during the Roman Period [pp. 313-320]The Australian didjeridu: A
Late Musical Intrusion [pp. 321-331]Back Matter [pp. 332-336]