What may be the world’s oldest playable musical instrument was recently discovered at an archaeological dig in China. And scientists have reason to wonder exactly what purpose the instrument served in its time. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont.
We’re listening to the sounds of a traditional Chinese folk song being played on a nine-thousand-year-old bone flute. Garman Harbottle is a senior scientist emeritus at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York.
“I don’t think that they employed these flutes to sit around on a summer night and play songs. I think that they were used in a ritual context. My personal guess is that the flutes had some very important role in the life of society.”
Professor Harbottle believes that the flutes may have had something to do with death rituals. The idea is based on the fact that this instrument and others like it were found in an ancient burial ground.
“It’s almost as though these flutes were an important accompaniment of the person going into the next world. We know that they believed in the next world because some of the graves are very richly furnished, they have many, many beautiful objects in them. Other graves are poorer. But why put all this expensive stuff into a grave when you’ve invested alot of time in making these things. Why simply bury them in a grave if they weren’t going to be necessary for the person going on to the next world.”
The flute’s role in the journey to the next world remains a mystery . However, only a small portion of the archeological site where it was discovered has been explored. And scientists expect to learn more about the instrument during future research.
Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.