We know very little about how early humans worked with wood because so few of the artifacts survive. If true, that would make this site by far the oldest example of human beings building with wood – stretching back some 476,000 years. That analogy suggested to Barham that these logs were once part of a platform or the base of a structure. And the Lincoln Logs really, really helped." "To interpret this, I drew on my childhood experience with a toy called Lincoln Logs," he says, "and the notches which allow you to pile up and make a log cabin. It was, in a sense, engineered," says Barham.īut engineered for what? Barham mulled over the question. Later analysis of the logs would reveal telltale signs of having been cut, chopped and shaped by human tools. That notch suggested that the logs had been manipulated by human beings – extraordinarily ancient ones, who once frequented this site above the dramatic 772-foot Kalambo Falls in Zambia. "But when you look closely and you remove the sand around it, you can see where one sits on top of the other is a notch." "It didn't look particularly exciting," says Larry Barham, professor of archaeology at the University of Liverpool. It exists also on kropeu and takhê zithers.The find didn't look like much at first – basically a log, lying crosswise over another log. We have included the strident sound device in the reconstitution of our fretted zither. Iconographic testimonies attest to its perpetuity over the centuries and musical treatises describe this element. Another system consists of a rectangular piece of ivory or cervid horn the thickness and curvature of the surface vary. This device already existed on the monochord zithers ofĪncient India. It is a small piece of thread or a thin bamboo tongue inserted between the rope and the bridge. In some of them, there is a device providing a strident sound and anĮxtension of the resonance duration. It has two strings - one melodic, the other one usedĪs a drone -, a gourd resonator and truncated touches made of wood or with spines of kapok tree whose end has been cut. If one compares the iconography of the zithers with frets of ancient India, it is clear that the position of the right hand differs because it is no longer necessary to generate harmonics withĪ single-resonator zither with touches has perpetuated continuously among ethnic minorities in the border areas of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. At that time, harps and lutes gradually disappeared, leaving the field free to develop a variety of stick and tube zithers. The fretted zither appeared around the 10th century in India (3-4). This zither could be the ancestor of both kropeu Hands close to the center and no longer at either end, it may be supposed that these instruments had touches or frets. If one takes into account both the length of the handle, the point of anchoring of the resonators, the playing position in which the upper resonator is no longer resting on the musician's chest, That despite the depiction of the image, the sculptor has represented this detail. Moreover, we can see, at the top of the zither, what seems to be a tuning peg. This is the place where the strings are attached. The latter, the lower part of the neck is raised. The two bas-reliefs opposite show the same type of zither, one seen from the front (1), the other in profile (2).
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