4,000-year-old Percussion Instrument UnearthedA rectangular stone musical instrument, confirmed to be a type of percussion instrument used in ancient China, was recently unearthed at the site of Qijia Culture in Qinghai Province, northwest China.Archaeologists from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the Qinghai Provincial Archaeological Research Institute said that this is the first such instrument ever found in the history of Chinese archaeology. They said that the discovery may reverse the traditional theory that ancient percussion instruments were triangular-shaped or square. The Qijia Culture flourished in the transitional period from the Neolithic Age to the Bronze Age, some 3,500 to 4,000 years ago. Wang Renxiang, a researcher from the CASS, discovered the relic at the home of a farmer who lives in the Lajia village, where the ruins of the Qijia Culture are located. The finely-cut and well-polished instrument, 96 cm long and 66 cm wide, is dark blue and still produces a loud, clear sound. A number of jade articles used in primitive religious rituals were found at the site, as well as a city moat which is dozens meters wide and five meters deep, experts said. Based on the discovery, experts from the CASS and Qinghai Provincial Archaeological Research Institute concluded that the site may have been the center of an administrative region. They also estimated that the ruins cover an area of 200,000 to 300,000 sq m. |
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