Researchers say they have uncovered a 2,000-year-old stringed in southern Vietnam.
The discovery was published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed archeology journal Antiquity. The artifact was found at the archaeological site of Gò Ô Chùa, in the Long An province of southern Vietnam.
The instrument was crafted from deer antler and dates back to the country鈥檚 pre-Óc Eo culture along the Mekong River, according to researchers.
"This stringed instrument, or chordophone, is one of the earliest examples of this type of Instrument in Southeast Asia,鈥� lead researcher and PhD student Fredeliza Campos from the Australian National University said in a news release.
More than 600 bone artifacts were analyzed by Campos and her collaborators while uncovering this instrument.
"It fills the gap between the region's earliest known musical instruments 鈥� lithophones or stone percussion plates 鈥� and more modern instruments," said Campos.
"It would鈥檝e been around 35 centimetres long and had a hole at one end for a peg, which would鈥檝e been important for tuning. It also had what looks like a bridge to support the string.
"No other explanation for its use makes sense.鈥�
There were no other artifacts like it found at the site, suggesting to researchers it was made by specialists who may have been musicians themselves.
"It is clearly established that music played an important role in the early cultures of this region. The striking similarities between the artifacts we studied and some stringed instruments that are still being played suggest that traditional Vietnamese music has its origins in the pre-historic past," Campos added.
Researchers believe that the instrument might have been played in a similar fashion to contemporary Vietnamese musical instruments such as the K'ný.
"The K'ný is a single-string bowed instrument that is uniquely controlled by the player鈥檚 mouth, which also acts as a resonator. It can play a wide variety of sounds and tones, much more than a chromatic scale you often hear on a piano," Campos said.
