Clay drums (German Tontrommeln) are ceramic objects in the shape of an hourglass, eggcup or tulip with no feet, with a ring of up to 15 holes at either end.
Around 200 clay drums have been found in German Megalithic complexes (e.g. Barskamp, Oldendorf in Landkreis Lüneburg), in settlements of the Walternienburg-Bernburg culture (Dölauer Heide) and in pit houses.
One richly decorated, smashed clay drum was found in the Lower Franconian cemetery of Großeibstadt.
Examples from the Wartburg culture were found in the gallery graves of Calden and Warburg.
Hermann Müller-Karpe raised the question of whether the drums were actually musical instruments in 1974.