Columbia
Pre-Columbian Culture

Black ware pottery
Pre-Columbian – Undetermined
Length: 3.875 in
Aerophones – Wind Instruments Proper – Edge Blown Flutes

Pre-Columbian zoomorphic ocarina depicting an armadillo, found in the region of Cartagena, Columbia, South America, a port city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast.  Archaeologists estimate that around 7000 BCE, the settlement of the formative Puerto Hormiga Culture, were  located in this region.  In today’s villages of Maria La Baja, Sincerín, El Viso and Mahates and Rotinet, there have also been discoveries of the remains of culturally organized societies through the excavation of maloca-type buildings (ancestral long houses where several families with patrilineal relations live together), who are directly related to the early Puerto Hormiga settlements.

This black pottery ocarina is of considerable age and in pristine condition.  The armor is detailed with incising and pecking, the slip is highly burnished and there are good mineral deposits. It has two finger holes for changing the pitches/notes on each side of the body, and it is played by  blowing through the nose (mouthpiece) of the head.