According to a new study published in the archaeological journal Antiquity of the University of Cambridge (UK), the deer antlers single-stringed lute found in Vietnam is the oldest stringed instrument ever unearthed in Southeast Asia.
Discovered at a site along the Mekong River, this 2,000-year-old single-stringed lute resembles the single-stringed stork that people still play in Vietnam today, according to the website. IFLScience.
Artifacts include a 35cm-long piece of deer horn with a hole in one end for a peg, which can be used to tune strings like the keys on a guitar head.
Although the rope has long since eroded, the object also has what is known as a “horse”, presumably used to support the rope.
Archaeologists at the Australian National University (ANU) and Long An Museum (Vietnam) recently concluded that the object was almost certainly a stringed instrument that was plucked to create music.
“There is no other explanation for its meaningful use,” said Fredeliza Campos, principal investigator and ANU graduate student.
Illustration of how to play the guitar with deer antlers – Photo: FZ CAMPOS.
The antlers are most likely the Sambar deer or the Indian boar deer, two species native to mainland Southeast Asia.
The research team dated the instrument to 2,000 years old and belonging to the pre-Oc Eo culture along the Mekong River in Vietnam, a particularly early presence for this instrument.
To better understand the musical culture of ancient Vietnam, researchers sifted through a catalog of more than 600 skeletal artifacts found in the area.
The researchers’ analysis indicates that this harp fits the list given and shows that they correspond to contemporary Vietnamese musical instruments.
There are 3 types of instruments for comparison, such as the Bro JoRai (broo of the Ede), Co Ke (the erhu or stork, found throughout Vietnam) and the K’ny (mouth violin) of the Jarai).