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In South Vietnam, researchers discovered and examined archaeological evidence of an ancient string instrument made from deer antlers.
The artifact, according to lead researcher and Ph.D. student Fredeliza Campos of the Australian National University (ANU), is at least 2,000 years old and dates back to Vietnam’s pre-Oc Eo culture along the Mekong River.
“This string instrument, or chordophone, is one of the earliest examples of its kind in Southeast Asia,” Ms. Campos explains.
“It bridges the gap between the region’s earliest known musical instruments — lithophones, or stone percussion plates — and more modern instruments.”
“This instrument would have been about 14 inches long and had a hole at one end for a peg, which would have been important for tuning. It also turned out to have a bridge to support the string.
Ms. Campos and her collaborators, Vương Thu Hồng of Vietnam’s Long An Museum and Jennifer Hull of ANU, examined more than 600 bone artifacts.
“We couldn’t find anything comparable, both in size and shape of the deer antlers,” Ms Hull said. “This also indicates that experts who are probably musicians created the objects.”
The objects were discovered at the Gò Ô Chùa archaeological site in Long An Province, South Vietnam. Three similar bronze bells were also discovered, most likely from a burial.
It is not known how the instrument was played or what sound it produced, but Ms. Campos believes the procedures were similar to those of today’s Vietnamese musical instruments such as the K’ný.
How the artifact could have been played. Source: Fredeliza Z. Campos et al
“The K’ný is a single-string bowed instrument that is operated entirely by the player’s mouth, which also acts as a resonator. It can produce a wide variety of sounds and tones, well beyond the chromatic scale usually heard on a piano. Camps added.
The antlers used to make the instrument were most likely obtained from the Sambar deer, also known as the Indian hog deer, which is native to mainland Southeast Asia.
Source: Fredeliza Z. Campos et al, In Search of a Musical Past: Evidence for Early Chordophones from Vietnam, Antiquity (2023). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2022.170
