Wooden Flute/Pipes unearthed by Archaeologists in Ireland!!!

DazedinLA · Post by **DazedinLA** » Tue May 11, 2004 5:02 am

Very cool discovery in Ireland....4000 year-old wooden flutes/pipes (no finger holes) that may be the oldest wooden instruments ever found:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... 0510060046

Now that's some aged wood!

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Tue May 11, 2004 8:43 am

That is really, really cool!

Redwolf

norseman · Post by **norseman** » Tue May 11, 2004 9:42 am

That is pretty amazing. The article didn't mention how they determined the pipes were really musical instruments and not something else. The fact that some of them can be used to play certain notes might just be a coincidence. I can just picture some ancient ghost laughing about how these people think pieces of their ancient bong are musical instruments!

Bob

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Tue May 11, 2004 12:22 pm

This must be Piltdown Pipes I think.

Those pipes are more in tune than ther average whistle by the sound of it.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Tue May 11, 2004 12:24 pm

I was thinking that they *could* be endblown overtone flutes, the kind that are still played in Scandinavia.

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Tue May 11, 2004 12:27 pm

There's more stuff in the Uilean Pipes forum. Apparently the pipes were connected to some kind of frame. I'm thinking it's some kind of organ or calliope.

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » Tue May 11, 2004 12:54 pm

I like the part that starts off: "Archaeologists are dancing with delight after discovering a set of musical pipes believed to have been used 4,000 years ago by pre-historic man in Ireland ..."

I wonder why they dont't think that they were used by modern man 4,000 years ago. :roll:

Steven · Post by **Steven** » Tue May 11, 2004 1:18 pm

Darwin wrote:I wonder why they dont't think that they were used by modern man 4,000 years ago. :roll:

Because no modern people were alive 4000 years ago. "Prehistoric" refers to the period before written records, which certainly encompasses 4000 years ago in Ireland (it's different in different places). It doesn't refer to a species or subspecies of people, just whether any records from the time have survived to now.

Steven

IDAwHOa · Post by **IDAwHOa** » Tue May 11, 2004 3:36 pm

Steven wrote:"Prehistoric" refers to the period before written records, which certainly encompasses 4000 years ago in Ireland (it's different in different places). Steven

Yeah, like high schools in the US of 2004....

Chuck_Clark · Post by **Chuck_Clark** » Tue May 11, 2004 5:23 pm

Since each tube plays a single note and apparently cannot be modulated, I'm guessing they're some sort of ancient panpipes. It would have helped if someone would have thought to include a photo.

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Tue May 11, 2004 5:25 pm

Chuck_Clark wrote:Since each tube plays a single note and apparently cannot be modulated, I'm guessing they're some sort of ancient panpipes. It would have helped if someone would have thought to include a photo.

More like a calliope or organ. The pipes were connected to a frame and apparently fed by a bellows or bag.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Tue May 11, 2004 5:33 pm

Steven wrote:
Darwin wrote:I wonder why they dont't think that they were used by modern man 4,000 years ago. :roll:
Because no modern people were alive 4000 years ago. "Prehistoric" refers to the period before written records, which certainly encompasses 4000 years ago in Ireland (it's different in different places). It doesn't refer to a species or subspecies of people, just whether any records from the time have survived to now.

Steven

I think Darwin may have meant "modern" in the paleologic sense.

Loren · Post by **Loren** » Tue May 11, 2004 6:42 pm

Whoops, not what I expected in this thread: From the title I thought maybe someone had finally found that Copeland whistle you've been neglecting Kev. My bad.

Loren

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Tue May 11, 2004 6:55 pm

There's a news clip here >> RTE of an interview with Bernice Molloy, site director for the Dublin-based archaeological consultancy Margaret Gowen.

DazedinLA · Post by **DazedinLA** » Tue May 11, 2004 8:01 pm

Loren wrote:Whoops, not what I expected in this thread: From the title I thought maybe someone had finally found that Copeland whistle you've been neglecting Kev. My bad.

Loren

Ouch!!! Your thinly veiled atttempts to shame me into parting with my Copland will not succeed!!!!

No, seriously, I still play it, uh, every now and then...actually I usually play at least one tune on whistle at each session, though the Dixon is proving to be a lot of fun...I wasnt expecting to be able to play it so quickly, but yeah, its gonna take a while to build up some chops.