Untersuchungen haben die Verwendung von Muscheln als Klanginstrumente für die Kommunikation an der katalanischen Küste vor etwa 6.000 Jahren dokumentiert. Muschelschalen wurden an Orten gefunden, die mehrere Dutzend Kilometer voneinander entfernt waren, was darauf hindeutet, dass sie möglicherweise eine wichtige Rolle bei der Kommunikation gespielt haben

Archaeologists from the University of Barcelona have documented the use of shells as sound instruments for communication on the Catalan coast some 6,000 years ago. 
Archaeologists from the University of Barcelona have analysed horns made from seashells from Neolithic settlements and mines in Catalonia. The results, published in an article in the journal Antiquity, reveal that shells used as horns were very effective for long-distance communication and in places with low visibility, although they do not rule out their use as musical instruments. 
According to Margarita Díaz-Andreu, co-author of the study and ICREA researcher at the UB, “it was known that several Charonia lampas shells had been discovered in a relatively small area of Catalonia, specifically in the lower reaches of the Llobregat River and in the pre-coastal depression of the Penedès region, east of the city of Barcelona.” She adds: “The apex had been removed, leading some researchers to suggest that they may have been used as musical instruments.”

Examination of the shells indicates that they were collected post-mortem, meaning that they were not gathered for consumption of the molluscs they contained, reinforcing the argument that they were obtained exclusively for their sound qualities.

To test this hypothesis, Díaz-Andreu, together with UB doctoral student Miquel López Garcia, analysed the conch shells as part of the European Research Council (ERC) Artsoundscapes project and played them under the supervision of museum curators to assess their acoustic properties. In addition to being an archaeologist, López Garcia is a professional trumpet player, which allowed him to test not only the conch shells’ capacity for long-distance communication, but also their potential as musical instruments.

“Conch shells are capable of producing high-intensity sounds and would have been very effective for long-distance communication,” says López-Garcia. “However, they are also capable of producing melodies by modulating the tone, so we cannot rule out the possibility that these shells were also used as musical instruments for expressive purposes,” he notes.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/signalling-and-musicmaking-interpreting-the-neolithic-shell-trumpets-of-catalonia-spain/84EE0A2A9B8C1C11E1C6476A4F191E01