Columbia
Tairona Culture

Black ware pottery
ca. 800-1200 CE
Length: 2 in; Width: 2.5 in
Aerophones – Wind Instruments Proper – Edge Blown Flutes

This Pre-Columbian vessel flute in the shape of a bird, is executed in traditional black colored pottery with a collar of feathers and articulated facial work nicely incised.  It is identified as from the Tairona (or Tayrona) Culture of the northern Colombian region of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, which goes back at least to the 1^st century CE.  This region is present-day Cesar, Magdalena and La Guajira Departments of Colombia, South America. References and knowledge about the Tairona civilization is limited to archaeological findings and a few written references from the early Spanish colonial era (ca. 1509-1513).  This bird shaped whistle is appraised to be from ca. 800-1200 CE.  It has four finger holes on the wings for changing the pitches/notes and the mouthpiece is part of the extended tail in the back.

The role of the whistle has not been fully explored or documented in Mesoamerica, but one theory is that they were used in helping the priest or shaman to communicate and cross over between the living world to the spirit world. Spanish colonists have also noted the use of special shrines for musical wind instruments and the playing of ocarinas and whistles to announce ritual dancing and chanting.