When Spaniards under Coronado first visited New Mexico in 1540, they observed many aspects of Pueblo Indian culture that amazed them. The expedition's chronicler, Pedro de Castañeda, recorded these in his official report, initially translated into English in 1896.

One of his entries caught my eye. It described a typical grinding room in one of the Tiwa pueblos near present day Albuquerque. The room was furnished with three mealing bins, each containing its stone metate, upon which corn was ground using a mano, or hand stone.

By custom, a trio of women would work together, moving in unison. "While they grind," said Castañeda, "a man is seated at the door playing a flute. To the melody, they draw their stones and sing in three parts."

What interested me was mention of the flute, the melody and singing in three parts. That is because one occasionally runs across modern statements claiming that Pueblos and other Indians did not actually produce artistic compositions that can qualify under our definition of music.

British author D.H. Lawrence, who spent time here in the early 1920s, dismissed that notion. He defended the repetitive chants he heard at corn dances, writing that "the deep sound of men's singing is like the booming and tearing of a wind deep inside a forest," and rating it as music, if not quite in the accepted sense.

That controversy aside, I've always been intrigued by the sound instruments employed by the Pueblos in prehistoric times, many of which survive in use to this day. Some actual musical instruments have been found archaeologically, others appear depicted in rock art, on painted pottery, and in excavated kiva murals.

The inventory of Pueblo instruments was not large. Flutes, trumpets and whistles made of bone, wood or reed were widely used throughout the prehistoric Southwest. At Zuni, two of the religious societies played a trumpet composed of a long reed with a bell-shaped gourd at the end. Conch shell trumpets, the shell obtained through long-distance trade, were formerly widespread in the area.

And of course, it is impossible to overlook the innumerable images of Kokopelli, the hump-backed flute player. The figure, merrily playing his flute, shows up frequently in petroglyphs and as a design element on ceramics.

Rattles surely are among the earliest of Indian musical instruments. Either gourds, turtle shells, buffalo hide or clay could form the hollow chamber.

Turtles once abounded on the Rio Grande at Isleta. Indians from upriver would travel there to catch them, obtaining permission from Isleta's religious leaders.

The turtle dance is still performed at Ohkay Owinge (San Juan Pueblo) on Dec. 26. Male dancers singing and shaking turtle-shell rattles provide all the musical accompaniment for the dance.

The drum, an instrument that Anglos most often associate with Indians, occurred in several varieties among the Pueblos.

At Zuni a pottery drum was favored for the Scalp ceremony and curing rituals. Foot drums could be found in most villages. They were created by digging a hole in the kiva floor and placing a wooden slab over it.

Participants danced on the "plank resonator," producing a hollow, thudding sound. Their intention, thereby, was to communicate with the spirits in the underworld.

And then there remains the common barrel drum, like the large ones seen today in public dances. Among the Keresan-speaking villagers, the drum is considered almost a living being with a heart and "a voice." Each is given its own personal name.

Cochiti Pueblo has long specialized in the crafting of fine drums, made originally of hollowed out mountain cottonwood. Other pueblos on the Middle Rio Grande are accustomed to purchasing them for use in their own round of ceremonies.

After cottonwood logs of appropriate length are hollowed, they are painted in traditional designs using native pigments. Then drum heads of horsehide or cowhide are added to both ends by lacing.

As late as the 1890s, the Cochitis refused to sell their drums to tourists, considering them to be sacred objects. But early in the 20th century, they started making a separate line of drums for the commercial market. These were decorated with poster paint and the skin drum heads were blackened with shoe polish.

The archeological literature refers to other secondary types of instruments, such as notched rasps of wood or bone, gourd fiddles, percussion stones and small copper bells, traded up from Mexico.

A full picture of the musical life of New Mexico's Indian people has not yet been drawn. But from archaeologists, we know that it was well established as early as 1,500 years ago!

Historian Marc Simmons is author of numerous books on New Mexico and the Southwest. His column appears Saturdays.