Neolithic notes Conch shells may be among the oldest instruments

As a child, Miquel López García was fascinated by the conch shell that his father's family in the southern Spanish region of Almería had blown to warn fellow villagers of rising rivers and approaching flood waters.

- Sam Jones

The hours he spent getting that "characteristically potent sound out of it" paid off last year when the archaeologist, musicologist and professional trumpet player pressed his lips to eight conch-shell trumpets. Their tones, he says, could carry insights into the lives of the people who lived in northeast Spain 6,000 years ago.

In an article, 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.

That the shells appeared to have been collected after the sea snails in them had died suggests they had been gathered for non-culinary purposes, just as the removal of their pointed tips indicates they were used as trumpets.