8,000-year-old bone flute tells its modern story

More than 8,000 years ago, a red-crowned crane died, leaving its ulna bone behind to be claimed by primitive men. They drilled holes in the skeletal remains, and there was music.

From 1986 to 2013, more than 40 bone flutes, mostly with seven sound holes, were unearthed at Jiahu, site of a neolithic settlement, in Wuyang County of central China's Henan Province. They were all made of ulna bones of cranes.

"The discovery of the Jiahu bone flute dates China's music history back more than 8,000 years ago," said Zhang Juzhong, the former head of the archaeological excavation team of the Jiahu site.

But what does a prehistoric instrument made from a crane bone sound like? An ensemble in Henan has successfully made a replica of the Jiahu bone flutes, which are believed to be the earliest wind instruments ever found by Chinese archaeologists, to reproduce the distant sound.

"The sound of a bone flute is resonant and unadorned. Every time I blow into the flute, it takes me back to the mysterious ancient times," said He Xiaoshuai, a 33-year-old bone flute player of the Huaxia Ancient Music Ensemble under the Henan Museum.

When He joined the ensemble in 2006, the musicians used replicas of the Jiahu bone flutes, but the appearance, texture and tone of the replicas were nothing close to the original instrument.

This problem troubled Huo Kun, head of the ensemble. He decided to restore the original features of the Jiahu bone flute and allow modern people to hear the echo of ancient times.

Yet it proved more difficult than he expected. The Jiahu bone flute was made of the ulna bone of a red-crowned crane, which may have been easily available for primitive man but the birds are under top national protection nowadays.

The idea of finding alternative bones always stuck with Huo. He racked his brains, seeking solutions in restaurant kitchens, at river banks and with private collectors.

In 2016, a craftsman of Tibetan eagle flutes gave several bones of eagles and vultures that died of natural causes to the ensemble. One of the bones was similar to the Jiahu bone flute in shape and size.

Huo decided to give it a try. He spent another two years looking for master flute makers and found one in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing.

The craftsman had never made a musical instrument out of bone. He removed the bone marrow and reamed holes based on the musical parameters of the Jiahu bone flute.

"It only took three to four hours to make a replica. But we spent over 10 years in preparation. The pitch and tone were very close to the original flute," said He, who witnessed the whole flute-making process.

Besides the Jiahu bone flute, the ensemble has also restored and produced replicas of more than 300 musical artifacts including a 5,000-year-old pottery clay flute named taoxun, 3,000-year-old bronze bells, and an ancient plucked stringed instrument known as konghou.

The team has compiled and created over 100 pieces of music based on ancient music scores and literature.

Established in 2000, the ensemble has performed in more than 20 countries and regions such as the United States, the Republic of Korea and Italy.

"Static display is not enough to let the public better understand the ancient musical instruments such as the Jiahu bone flute. By making replicas, we can reproduce the sound of the past and help the music revive and prosper," said Li Hong, the former leader of the Huaxia Ancient Music Ensemble.