tubular drums

Regardless of the form they assume, the earliest drums were all struck by hand. Neolithic pottery drums of unusual shape have been found in central and eastern Europe: the upper portion is cylindrical, the lower, truncoconical, with closed, flat bottom—the same form as that of some modern East African wooden drums that Sachs (1940) counts among kettledrums. Most of these Neolithic artifacts are plain, but one specimen from Egeln near Magdeburg, Germany, is provided with handles and with holes for...