Alligator drum

Alligator drum

Percussion instrument
Classification	Membranophone
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	211.2 (Tubular drums)
Developed	China

The alligator drum is a type of drum once used in Neolithic China, made from clay and alligator hides.

Alligator drums have been found over a broad area at the Neolithic sites from modern Shandong in the east to Qinghai in the west, dating to a period of 5500–2350 BC. In literary records, drums manifested shamanistic characteristics and were often used in ritual ceremonies.^[1] Drums covered with alligator skin for ceremonial use are mentioned in the Shijing.^[2][3]

During the Archaic period, alligators probably lived along the east coast of China, including southern Shandong. The earliest alligator drums, comprising a wooden frame covered with alligator skin, are found in the archaeological sites at Dawenkou (4100–2600 BC), as well as several sites of Longshan (3000–2000 BC) in Shandong and Taosi (2300– 1900 BC) in southern Shanxi.^[4]

References

1. Liu, Li (2007). The Chinese Neolithic: Trajectories to Early States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-01064-0. p. 123
2. Sterckx, Roel (2002). The Animal and the Daemon in Early China. New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-5270-0. p. 125.
3. Porter, Deborah Lynn (1996). From Deluge to Discourse: Myth, History, and the Generation of Chinese Fiction. New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-3034-0. p 53.
4. Liu, Li (2007). The Chinese Neolithic: Trajectories to Early States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-01064-0.