2,000-year-old stringed instrument discovered in Vietnam: researchers

Researchers believe they have uncovered a 2,000-year-old stringed instrument in southern Vietnam (right). Here’s how it might have been played. (Supplied)

Researchers say they have uncovered a 2,000-year-old stringed musical instrument 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’s 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,” 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 – lithophones or stone percussion plates – and more modern instruments," said Campos.

"It would’ve been around 35 centimetres long and had a hole at one end for a peg, which would’ve been important for tuning. It also had what looks like a bridge to support the string.

"No other explanation for its use makes sense.”

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’s 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.

Reporting for this story was paid for through The Afghan Journalists in Residence Project funded by Meta.