Abstract
Excavations at the early Neolithic site of Jiahu1,2 in Henan Province, China have produced what may be the earliest complete, playable, tightly-dated multinote musical instruments. Jiahu was occupied from 7000 BC to 5700 BC, considerably antedating the well known Peiligang culture3,4,5. Here we describe six exquisitely made complete flutes which were found in radiocarbon-dated excavation layers, along with fragments of perhaps 30 more. The flutes are made from the ulnae of the red-crowned crane (Grus japonensis Millen) and have 5, 6, 7 and 8 holes. The best preserved flute has been played and tonally analysed. In addition to early musical artefacts, the archaeological record at Jiahu1,2 contains important information on the very foundations of Chinese society. We describe the archaeological characteristics of the Jiahu site, details concerning its dating, its place in the prehistory of the Chinese Neolithic, the ethnicity of its population and the results of a tonal analysis of a nearly 9,000-year-old musical instrument found there.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Henan Province, Institute of Cultural Relics. Preliminary report for the second through the sixth excavation at the Neolithic site of Jiahu in Wuyang, Henan. Wenwu 1, 1–17 (1989).
Zhang,J. & Wang,X. Notes on the recent discovery of ancient cultivated rice at Jiahu, Henan Province: a new theory concerning the origin of Oryza japonica in China. Antiquity 72, 897–901 (1998).
Underhill,A. Current issues in Chinese Neolithic archaeology. J. World Prehist. 11, 103–160 (1997).
An,Z. Radiocarbon dating and the prehistoric archaeology of China. World Archaeol. 23, 193–200 (1991).
National Bureau of Cultural Relics Board. A Compilation of Cultural Areas in China (Zhongguo Ditu, Press, Henan, 1991).
Howells,W. W. in The Origins of Chinese Civilization (ed. Keightley, D. N.) (Univ. of California Press, Berkeley, 1983).
Barnard,N. in The Origins of Chinese Civilization (ed. Keightley, D. N.) (Univ. of California Press, Berkeley, 1983).
Marcuse,S. A Survey of Musical Instruments (Harper & Row, New York, 1975).
Early Music. Science 276, 205 (1997).
Lau,B., Blackwell,B. A. B., Schwarcz,H. P., Turk,I. & Blickstein,J. I. B. Dating a flautist? Using ESR (electron spin resonance) in the Mousterian cave deposits at Divje Babe I, Slovenia. Geoarchaeology 12, 507–536 (1997).
Brown,H. M. in The New Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (ed. Sadie, S.) 664–681 (Macmillan, London, 1987).
Pian,R. C., Kishibe,S. & Yang,B. N. in The New Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (ed. Sadie, S.) 245–283 (Macmillan, London, 1987).
Needham,N. J. T. M., Wang,L. & Robinson,K. G. in Science and Civilization in China iv/1 (ed. Needham, N. J. T. M.) 126–228 (Cambridge University Press, 1962).
Lindley,M. in The New Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (ed. Sadie, S.) 277–279 (Macmillan, London, 1987).
Acknowledgements
This project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. In addition, C.W. was supported by the Department of Science & Technology of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Structure Research Laboratory at USTC. Research at Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the US Department of Energy. We thank Huang Xiangpeng of the Music School of the Art Institute of China who supervised these important tests and the personnel of the same Music School who carried them out: Xiao Xinghua, Xu Taoying, Gu Bobao, Tong Zhongliang, Qiu Ping and Liu Haiwang.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhang, J., Harbottle, G., Wang, C. et al. Oldest playable musical instruments found at Jiahu early Neolithic site in China. Nature 401, 366–368 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/43865
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/43865
This article is cited by
-
Bone aerophones from Eynan-Mallaha (Israel) indicate imitation of raptor calls by the last hunter-gatherers in the Levant
Scientific Reports (2023)
-
Stable isotopic analysis on ancient human bones in Jiahu site
Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences (2007)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.