Skulls and bones can occasionally be utilized as an instrument’s principal component or as adornment. Some folktales about the genesis of musical instruments make reference to human or animal remains.

Red-crowned crane-bone flutes from the Neolithic era in China are the oldest playable instruments. In Tibet, thigh-bone trumpets (rkangling) and skull drums (damaru) were employed.

Believed to originate from Ethiopia, skull lyres are extremely uncommon, little documented, and only found in museums. There is no documented custom for these lyres, despite some suggesting that they be used in secret or symbolic rituals. It’s probably a fantastic product designed for the European market in the nineteenth century.