An unusual deer antler found in Vietnam may be one of the oldest string instruments ever unearth in Southeast Asia . find at a site along the Mekong River , the 2,000 - year - erstwhile instrument is like a individual - stringed harp and may have been a great - grandparent to the complex musical instruments people still pluck today in Vietnam .
The artifact consist of a 35 - centimeter - long slice of deer antler with a hole at one end for a peg , which was likely used to tune up the string like the keys at the top of a guitar . While the string gnaw by long ago , theobject also have a bridge that was perhaps used to stick out the train .
Archaeologists from the Australian National University and Long An Museum in Vietnam recently report the engrossing object in a new paper , reaching the conclusion that it was almost sure as shooting a stringed instrument that was plucked to create music .
How the artifact could have been played. Image credit: F Z Campos.
" No other account for its employment makes sense , ” Fredeliza Campos , lead researcher and PhD student from ANU , said in a statement seen by IFLScience .
The antler most belike come from a Sambar deer or an Indian Sus scrofa cervid , two species that are aboriginal to mainland Southeast Asia . The team date the target to 2,000 age older from Vietnam ’s pre - Óc Eo culture along the Mekong River , which is exceptionally other for this form of instrumental role .
" This string instrument , or chordophone , is one of the earliest examples of this type of instrument in Southeast Asia . It fills the interruption between the region ’s early have it off musical instrument – lithophones or stone rhythm section plates – and more modernistic instruments , ” she added .
There ’s evidence to paint a picture that many ancient culture had a rich and lovely medicine culture , butit often escapesthe archeological platter . Songsdon’t stick aroundin rocky deposit , after all .
For example , ancient Greece is one of the most studied portions of ancient history and we know enjoyingmusicplayed a key part in their refinement , as shown by the issue of artwork express instruments being toot and plucked . However , the quest to strike what the music sounded like hasbeen describedas a “ madden mystery . ”
To best understand the music cultures of ancient Vietnam , the researchers sift through a catalogue of over 600 os artifact found in the area . Their analytic thinking indicates that this fashioned antler accommodate the bill and shows the emergence of present-day Vietnamese musical instruments , such as the K’ný .
" The K’ný is a single - string bowed pawn that is uniquely controlled by the player ’s back talk , which also play as a resonator . It can play a all-inclusive miscellany of sound and tone , much more than a chromatic exfoliation you often hear on a piano , " added Campos .
The newfangled study was published in the journalAntiquitythis week .
