Flute

Fragment of vulture bone manufactured to serve as a flute. It has a dark color, in brown and reddish tones. The fragment is fractured at one end, while the distal end appears to be burned and as if some type of wax or resin had been applied to add an unpreserved element. On its dorsal side it presents a decoration of oblique and horizontal incised lines that intersect forming motifs in the shape of a rhombus and a rectangle, and zig-zag on the sides. On the geometric decoration of the dorsal face there are two circular perforations that would serve for the fingering of the instrument.

The reason for the reddish color of the burnt end could be the inclusion of a type of embouchure to produce/eject sound that is not preserved.

The use of wing bones from large vulture birds (Black Vulture or Griffon Vulture) is common for the manufacture of this instrument.

It has been verified whether this fragment could form a set with the other flute fragment exhibited in the Roman Theater Museum of Caesaraugusta (00410), but the decorative quality and the fingering perforations discredit this idea.

According to Aranzazu Mendívil's research, there are parallels in Albarracín - three specimens, one of them an ovicaprid -, Ibiza and Valencia. The one in Seville is a piece from the Almohad period.