Northern Coastal Peru
Moche Culture

Pottery
ca. 500 to 700 CE
Height: 10 in
Aerophones – Wind Instruments Proper – Lip Vibrated

As there were no stringed instruments in South America prior to European contact, the people made a multitude of wind and percussion instruments. Moche artwork/paintings portray drums, rattles, panpipes, flutes, and trumpets like this one. This Pre-Columbian clay trumpet was made using a reduced firing process.  There are no embellishments applied to the surface of its twisted body showing a smoothly polished conical form in structure.