Dear Ciprian,

In the Eneolithic period from Balkans (Romania and Bulgaria) there are some artefacts made of human bones:

- Pietrele tell settlement (Gumelnita culture) - a chisel (Toderas et al. 2009);

- Sultana-Malu Rosu tell settlement (Gumelnita culture) - a perforated pendant from a human phalanx (unpublished);

- Burgas tell settlement (Karanovo VI culture) - several circular perforated pendants from human skulls (unpublished). 

Best wishes,

Catalin

Dear Ciprian,

Also in Neolithic settlement from Vaxevo (Bulgaria), L. Ninov found one owl made from  human fibula. See Stefan Chokhadzhiev  2001, Vaxevo - praistoricheski selishta. Veliko Turnovo: Faber (in Bulgarian with a summary in English) or English review of this book made by Peter Leshtakov in L. Nikolova (ed.), Material Evidence and Cultural Pattern in Prehistory, Reports of Prehistoric Research Projects, vol. 5, 2001 (2002), Salt Lake City-Sofia-Karlovo: Gankom Print Ltd., pp. 97-100. 

Best wishes,

Catalin

You can also check these two concerning some finds in a neolithic settlement in Greece :

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255688015__________0325_____Human_teeth_human_ornaments_A_note_on_K0325_from_Neolithic_Dispilio_Kastoria

and this one

http://traumwerk.stanford.edu/archaeolog/2006/10/the_most_personal_personal_orn.html

The first one is written in greek.

Best wishes

Chapter Ανθρώπινα δόντια, «ανθρώπινα» κοσμήματα: Ένα σημείωμα με αφο...

I forgot to mention that these two articles are referring to ornaments shaped on human teeth.

Thank you all for help.

There is also several fragments of human crania used to shape lithics in La Quina Middle Paleolithic http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248410002071

Hi Ciprian,

Human bones have been often used in and around Melanesia over, at least, the last few hundred years. In the Torres Straits a human skull was the price of an ocean going canoe and a human jawbone was the price of a smaller canoe (the former mentioned specifically by Haddon and others). Human teeth necklaces were often worn as a sign of power and mana in the Solomons and New Guinea. Skulls were kept for magic and spiritual purposes by the Asmat and around the Papuan Gulf, etc. Pendants of the Atlas vertebrae were also valued by the Asmat. Bones of ancestors were revered and used as charms by the natives of Santa Cruz and knives made of human thigh bones were used and valued by the headhunters of the Sepik and Papuan Gulf. Attached is a photo of a few of these items - A: thighbone dagger Suki Lagoon, Papuan Gulf. B:human sternum (chest bone) and C: slice of leg bone - both of a native named Mepirpe from Neboi village, Santa Cruz and used as charms called Nomba used to protect their feather rolls. D: necklace of human teeth from South Malaita, Solomons. E: Skull of victim from Kikori, Papuan Gulf and F: Asmat pendant of human Atlas vertebrae from ,Manokwari area, Irian Jaya. Items are not to scale and low resolution (for collections program). These are a bit more modern than other items mentioned as they fall within the last 200 years.

All the best,

Col

my reply is late. However, I recall the role of human bone in the production of hooks in the Pacific including the Polynesia, and Fench Polynesia.

the bibliography is very abundant.

best regards

Vincent

I've wanted to say something intelligent about this question and I've devoted some time to same.

Obviously, my view sees musical production materials as tools as well as other mentions made here. 

Allow me a brief quote from  Jeremy Mantagu:

"No musical instrument can be created without purpose, although preexisting objects can be adapted for the purpose of making music."1

Bone is a not uncommon material found in musical instruments. In earliest times, animal and human bones were used for percussion instruments and idiophones in general. As bone is hollow in its dry state, it was probably the first source for flute and reed wind instruments (drilling bores is not an easy task).

At present, in my own instrument fabrication, bone gets used only for ferules, but the tradition is there. There is a lovely oboe by Anciuti out of elfenbein (ivory) and there are many other examples using ivory which after all is, as Deutsch has it "Elephant Bone". I can't think of an example from western civilization which uses human bone for the entire instruments (my uses are entirely decorative) within the last few hundred years, however.

But the real interest I have is how one applies understanding of Fraser's idea of sympathetic magic to the use of ancestor's and enemies' bone for flutes/aerophones in general and percussion instruments as well. 

I think I will write a question dealing directly with music production in a few days. The use of implementa of sympathetic magic for music instruments would be socially powerful statement.

I hope this won't regarded as ancillary.

Karl

1. Origins and Development of Musical Instruments © 2007 Jeremy Mantagu Scarecrow Press Inc. ISBN0-8108-5657-3 page 1

One of the oldest musical instruments from the alpine region, the flute from the semi-cave Gaban at Piazzina di Martignano near Trento, is an extraordinary piece. In the layer of the early Neolithic period (app. 6th millennium. BC) were found several fragments that could be assembled into a complete tube. Surprisingly, the flute was made of a human femur. The cancellous bone was removed and then the surface was smoothed. Then you have the entire outside decorated with fine engravings. The human face reminds us of the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic sculptures from Lepenski Vir in Serbia.

Paolo Graziosi, “Nuove manifestazioni d’arte mesolitica e neolitica nel riparo Gaban presso Trento.” Rivista Scienze Preistoriche 30, 1975, 238-278.

Thank you very much.

Dear Ciprian,

If iT not too late.. Tools and artifacts from human bones are very frequent in ancient Maya cultures... There will be a lot of such stArting from the earliest periods. There even curtain holders made from this .. material.

I am still trying to develop a probing question regarding the use of human bone in musical instruments, but this much more general topic also draws my attention. Sadly, I am unable to locate a proper citation for the usages for human bone in sympathetic magic. The Golden Bough is what I would cite but my copy is elsewhere at the moment. With the promise to offer a better referenced contribution at a later time, I have something to offer from one of the best minds I have ever encountered (sadly, in print only), Linda Schele in The Blood of Kings, has this to say about a carved human femur from late classic Maya times:

"This is one of those unsharpened hair ornaments. The size suggests it is a human femur, perhaps recovered from a sacrificial victim. The wider end of the bone is carved with the portrait of a seated lord wearing the regalia of bloodletting. ... This bone, used in part of the bloodletting costume, depicts its owner performing the ritual."

The Blood of Kings, Linda Schele, Mary Ellen Miller; George Braaillier Inc. ISBN 0-8076-1278-2 ©1986 The Kimball Art Museum p186, color plate 197

Hello,

One of pendants from the Final Stone Age site Kretuonas 1C in Lithuania (3500-3000 BC cal approximately, late hunter-gatherers) was made of a scull fragment. It is published in one of the papers of Marius Irsenas (look for him at academia.edu or maybe here at RG). It depicts a flat human head, made rather unaccurately.

There are several good examples of using human body remains (e.g. bead-like artefacts from femural condiles, amuletes from cranium) from The Czech Republic dating to the Bronze Age, especially connected Věteřov-Maďarovce culture (cca 1700-1600 BC). Post mortal body treatment was complicated within this culture. Let me know, if is it still serious for you and I can send you references and write more.

Dear Mr Danhel,

I'd love to know more about these examples from the Czech Republic.

Please provide me with some references.

Dear Akis,

here is propably latest overview:

https://www.academia.edu/1152115/Non-traditional_material_and_a_non-traditional_object._A_neglected_sort_of_the_Late_Bronze_Age_bone_industry_Netradi%C4%8Dn%C3%AD_materi%C3%A1l_neobvykl%C3%BD_p%C5%99edm%C4%9Bt_Opom%C3%ADjen%C3%BD_segment_kost%C4%9Bn%C3%A9_industrie_mlad%C5%A1%C3%AD_doby_bronzov%C3%A9_

Many analogies are mentioned on pp. 145-146

There is an amazite site in Colombia called Aguazuque, where human skull were engravies and painted withmussel shell paint. It was excavated in the 1970s by Dr Gonzalo Correal. The site was published in a manographh distributed bythe Banco de la Republica in Colomnia.

Dear Ciprian-Cătălin Lazanu - Here is an excerpt from my book "Subsurface History of Humanity: Direction of History" - "Forty thousand years ago, as it is now, people enjoyed both art and music. Archaeologists found several ancient flutes in Germany. Those ancient flutes dated 40000 - 41000 BC [Higham, Thomas; Laura Basell; Roger Jacobic; Rachel Wood; Christopher Bronk Ramsey; Nicholas J. Conard (May 8, 2012). "Testing models for the beginnings of the Aurignacian and the advent of figurative art and music: The radiocarbon chronology of Geißenklösterle". Journal of Human Evolution. Elsevier. 62 (6): 664–76. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2012.03.003.]. Three flutes were found in Geissenklösterle cave. One flute was made from mammoth ivory. Two other flutes were made from swan bones."

From a more recent time - in New Guinea human skulls were used as money (to buy ocean going canoes) in Torres Sraits and the Papuan gulf, human jawbones as money in the same area, from the Sepik to the Gulf human leg bones used as daggers, Santa Cruz used human bones as arrow points and as magical additions to their feather rolls, skulls from the Sepik to the Gulf for divination purposes and to gain help from the dead, skulls were required in the Asmat area for boys to become men and, with the Dyaks a man gained prestige in proportion to the number of skulls taken. Col