Archaeologists excavating the ancient city of Troy in northwestern Turkey have discovered a bone flute estimated to be about 2,800 years old. The instrument is the first musical object found at the site since excavations began in 1870, according to Turkey’s culture and tourism minister, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy.
The flute was found in a layer dating to the eighth century B.C.E., around the period when Homer is thought to have composed The Iliad and The Odyssey. Troy’s archaeological remains are divided into nine layers representing different periods in the city’s history. While scholars once believed Troy was largely abandoned at this time, later research has found evidence that people continued to live there.
Ersoy said the discovery provides direct archaeological evidence of music at Troy. Ancient texts and finds elsewhere in Anatolia have suggested that music was part of religious ceremonies and social life, but no physical evidence of musical performance had previously been found at the city.
The excavation also yielded the 4,500-year-old head of an anthropomorphic figure near the gate of Troy II, an Early Bronze Age settlement. The object may have had a religious or ritual purpose. Excavation leader Rüstem Aslan said finds of this kind are rare in the history of work at Troy.
Sources: Smithsonian Magazine.