An archaeo‐organological survey of the Netherlands
Joan Rimmer · World Archaeology · 1981
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 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.