Ancient Musical Instruments Found
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
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May 9, 2005— Chinese archaeologists have discovered an unprecedented collection of approximately 500 clay musical instruments that date to around 496 B.C., according to news reports from China.
The collection, found in a three-chambered tomb in East China's Jiangsu Province, includes many percussion and bell-like instruments, such as a three-foot-long fou, a dingning, a niuduo, a yongzhong and a quing.
Many of these instruments are so rare that little is known about them, aside from a handful of descriptions in old texts. The fou and duo, for example, are firsts for China.
"It's the first time that we've confirmed the existence of fou, a clay musical instrument," Zhang Min, director of the Archaeological Institute at the Nanjing Museum, told the Xinhua news service. "We are sure it's a musical instrument this time. In the past, we thought it was just a jar, or a basin made of clay. It's not just a basin, but a delicate musical instrument, with a beautiful sound."
Also found at the site in what is now Wuxi was a ju, which looks like a glazed clay column. The ju served as a base to support some of the other instruments. It is the first to have been excavated and identified in China.
The delicate, reverberating sound of the instruments somewhat contrasts with their appearance.
Most of the objects are covered with finely crafted bas-relief and engraved slithering snakes and lizards. Historians previously had suspected that people in Yue worshipped snakes, so the instruments support this theory.
The state of Yue, where the instruments were found, was just a blip in Chinese history because it existed for only 200 years, but it produced one of China's most legendary, heroic leaders, King Goujian, whose reign began in 496 B.C.
Goujian wielded a bronze sword and led his men to victory in many battles, including a crushing defeat of the nearby state of Wu, where the Wu king was forced to commit suicide.
Archaeologists are not yet certain if the Yue tomb belonged to Goujian, but its size and content indicate that it must have belonged to an important individual. The tomb's middle chamber previously had been robbed of most of its contents, but the flanking chambers were not.
Aside from the musical instruments, archaeologists found complete sets of jade and porcelain ceremonial ware. According to a China Daily report, the pottery features red, blue and white glazes.
The clay objects, including the instruments, represent some of China's earliest porcelain. Li Bogian, professor of archaeology at Peking University, said the newly found items are primitive in appearance, because they retain a gray tinge that later was eliminated with more controlled firing temperatures.
However, she commented that the workers had applied the glazes evenly.
Li He, associate curator of Chinese art at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and an expert on ceramics, also thought the tomb likely belonged to a high-status individual, since "the number and type of instruments were an indication of the political power, status and wealth of the owner."
Li He, author of the book "Chinese Ceramics: A New Comprehensive Survey from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco," told Discovery News that the musical instruments will help researchers to verify facts about Yue history, specifically concerning its early kiln.
"The Yue kiln in Zhejiang province holds a special position in the history of Chinese ceramics," Li He said. "If, say, one of China's contributions to the world was the invention of glaze, then (this happened at) the Yue kiln."
While the find has excited porcelain experts, musicologists now are working to restore the instruments. They hope the objects, many of which were found intact, but covered with mud, might produce music just as they did nearly 2,500 years ago.
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