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Archaeologists have recovered multiple vessel-flutes (clay “ocarina”/vessel-type flutes) and small ceramic bells from the LBK neolithic era in Europe
In Brunn am Gebirge (Wolfholz), Lower Austria. Scientists found fragments interpreted as vessel-flutes (clay aerophones with finger holes and mouth openings), and multiple fragments from Site 2 & Site 3 (Wolfholz) (1)
The excavation/publication team reconstructed playable instruments in experimental work and a report. They showed the instruments could produce a small scale and range. And the site also produced a small clay “bell” type object. Discussed with the flutes.
Its not just in Brunn am Gebirge (Wolfholz) version
Other vessel-flutes appear in the Balkans and Carpathian region. That are closely related early farming traditions.
In Čaška-Mramor, Ovčarovo-Gorata and other southeast European early neolithic sites. Globular, vessel flutes and aerophones were found
These are related to early farming traditions, like Starčevo and early neolithic Balkans. They have been discussed alongside the Brunn finds, in comparative studies of early neolithic musical instruments. Parallels help place the Brunn LBK instruments in a broader early-farmer musical tradition.
Reports include typological description, context (radiocarbon phases for Wolfholz 5670–5250 BC), drawings/photographs of fragments, and experimental reconstructions. It show the instruments are playable and could have produced several pitches. That combination of secure context, physical description and experiment. Is why the Brunn example is the best LBK case for musical instruments.
Bone flutes are well known for paleolithic, and for some later neolithic contexts in Europe
But bone flutes from LBK settlements are not common in the literature. Much of the wider literature on prehistoric bone flutes relate to palaeolithic or to non-LBK neolithic areas.
Check it out with some more neolithic architecture today!

Cite: (1) “Flutes from Brunn am Gebirge, Wolfholz Site 2” — Beate Maria Pomberger, Nadezhda Kotova, Peter Stadler. Chapter in: Early Neolithic Settlement Brunn am Gebirge, Wolfholz, in Lower Austria and the Origin to the Western Linear Pottery Culture (LPC) (Beier & Beran Verlag). Volume 88a. 2019. ISBN 978-3-95741-100-6. Pages 397-405.
Bibliography:
Pomberger, B. M. “The Musical Instruments of the Early Neolithic Settlement of Brunn_am_Gebirge_Wolfholz”
Pomberger, Beate-Maria; Kotova, Nadezhda; Stadler, Peter (2018). Flutes of the first European farmers. Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien, Serie A, vol. 120, pp. 453-470.
Pomberger, Beate-Maria; Kotova, Nadezhda; Stadler, Peter in “Aerophones from the 6th Millennium in Europe”
Nikitin et al. 2019 (Linearbandkeramik overview)
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