If someone hands you a large, spiral seashell, chances are that your instinct will drive you to hold it up to your ear. Thousands of years ago, however, prehistoric communities in modern-day Spain raised them to their lips.

In a study published today in the journal Antiquity, researchers experimented with archaeological artifacts in a special way—by using them directly. They studied and tested conch shell trumpets from Neolithic (around 7000 to 1700 BCE) sites in Catalonia, Spain. Their firsthand approach revealed that the prehistoric trumpets would have been great for long-distance communication and could also have been musical instruments.

Catalonia is just one of many places around the world where humans used seashells to make noises. But the shell trumpets found there have been l

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