ABSTRACT
The earliest instruments can be traced back to about 6000 B.C. according to archeological findings. A batch of gudi (bone flute) was unearthed from the Jiahu ruins in the Wuyang area in Henan Province in 1986-1987. They were sacrificial objects in a tomb. According to the Carbon-14 date, they existed 7920 (±150) years before the present, and they are the earliest instruments found in China so far. They were made from the leg bones of large birds. Most of them have seven fingerholes, so that different types of heptatonic scales can be played on them. This indicates that there was a well-developed musical culture in China at that time.
