Vietnam discovers 2,000-year-old stringed instrument
Discovered along the Mekong River in southern Vietnam, the 2,000-year-old instrument resembles a single-stringed harp and may have been an ancestor to the complex musical instruments people still plucked today in Vietnam, according to UK-based science website IFLScience . The artifact consists of a 35-centimeter piece of deer antler with a hole at one end for a peg, which was likely used to tune the string. The antler most likely came from a Sambar deer or an Indian hog deer, two species native to mainland Southeast Asia. While the string seems to have eroded away long ago, the instrument features a bridge that was perhaps used to support the string. Lead researcher and Ph.D. student Fredeliza Campos from the Australian National University said the artifact is at least 2,000 years old — dating back to Vietnam’s pre-Oc Eo culture along the Mekong River, which is exceptionally early for this kind of instrument. How the artifact could have been played. Image credit: F Z Campo