Wooden musical instruments of the Early Iron age (the Altai)

Archaeological finds of wind instruments such as flutes and pan-pipes made of bone and horn show that music as the art of sound appeared in the Upper Paleolithic. Plucked musical instruments were invented later, in the Early Iron Age. They were made of wood and therefore are very rarely discovered due to poor preservation of organic material. Their study and functional attribution started in the mid 20th century. The technology of making wooden musical objects of the Early Iron Age was first discussed in specialized articles at the very beginning of the 21st century. This article presents the results of comparative typological, technical, and technological analysis of wooden musical instruments of the Scythian, Hunno-Sarmatian, and Ancient Turkic periods. Techniques and methods of making plucked musical instruments such as harps in the nomadic cultures of the Early Iron Age in the Altai Mountains are reconstructed and discussed in detail. Comprehensive technical and technological analysis has revealed the functioning time of wooden lute-like plucked musical instruments and specific features of their manufacturing. The closest parallels to wooden plucked musical instruments of the Ancient Altai in terms of morphology and manufacturing techniques are Ancient Egyptian lutes. Modern Chinese lutes are counterparts of these musical instruments improved by time and modern technologies. Comparative typological analysis of the earliest instruments of Ancient Egypt shows that main technological components of manufacturing their sound resonators and necks have not undergone significant changes over such a long period of time. However, shapes of resonator and neck, quantity and quality of strings, location and methods of their tightening on the sounding board and neck changed and improved in different cultures depending on the quality of materials and cultural preferences.