Chinese dig sound from ancient flute.

In one of the most unusual recording sessions ever held, a musician recently entered a sound studio and successfully played a Chinese folk song on a nearly 9,000-year-old bone flute. The flute, one of six unearthed in a prehistoric Chinese village, is the earliest known complete, playable musical instrument, a research group reports.

Analysis of the sounds from the seven-holed instrument indicates that a tiny opening drilled next to one of the holes corrected a slightly off-pitch tone, holds a team headed by archaeologist Juzhong Zhang of the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Henan Province in Zhengzhou, China.

The researchers didn't analyze the other flutes' sounds because preliminary tests indicated that they would crack if played. Construction of replicas of each bird-bone flute will allow for a detailed comparison of the specimens' musical scales to two current Chinese musical scales. An account of the ancient flutes appears in the Sept. 23 NATURE, and the flute recording can be heard at http://www.nature.com.

"Aside from finding what we see as the earliest complete, playable musical instrument, what's surprising is the appearance of sharp social divisions in this very early agricultural village," says Garman Harbottle, a nuclear chemist at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., and a coauthor of the new report. Some graves at the ancient settlement, Jiahu, contain opulent offerings, while others are, literally, bare-bones affairs.

Jiahu excavations began in 1962. The ancient flutes were uncovered in burials in 1987 and then radiocarbon dated. Harbottle helped the Chinese scientists interpret their data.

"This new find is exciting but not surprising, since complex societies certainly existed by 9,000 years ago," remarks archaeologist April Nowell of the University of Victoria in British Columbia. About 30 partial bone flutes ranging in age from 12,000 to 36,000 years have been found in Europe, as well as a disputed Neandertal flute (SN: 4/4/98, p. 215). Nowell says that German researchers have recorded a tune with the piece that remains of a 30,000-year-old flute, making it the oldest playable musical instrument.