What is the value and significance of the Jiahu Bone Flute?

The Jiahu Bone Flute is a flute made of bone unearthed at the Jiahu site in Maoyang, Henan Province.

The Jiahu Bone Flute, named after the Jiahu site in Maoyang, Henan Province, is one of the earliest musical instruments in China, and is now housed in the Henan Museum.

The flute is 23.6 centimeters long and 1.1 centimeters wide at the widest part of the diameter, and the whole object is brown in color, with the whole body smooth and crystalline due to petrification. There are seven holes in the body of the flute, which can play a piece of music similar to a seven-tone scale, and because the thickness of the bone tube varies, it is easy to produce a difference in tone, so it is corrected by opening a small hole next to the seven holes.

The bone flute was broken into three sections when it was unearthed, and there were several holes at each break, indicating that it had been carefully repaired after it was broken, which was very precious to the owner.

This is the earliest and most well-preserved wind instrument ever found in China, and the discovery of the Jiahu bone flute rewrites the time and history of the origin of Chinese music.

The bone flute is made of crane-like ulna tube. It is finely ground and has 7 holes. There is a small hole between the sixth hole and the seventh hole, which can be pronounced in two variations after sound measurement, and should be drilled as a tuning hole for adjusting the pronunciation of the seventh hole. It is worth noting that the tomb unearthed two pieces of bone flute of similar shape. According to the study of sound measurement, they are a female and a male, confirming the tradition of male and female flutes since ancient times in China.

This flute has been tested and proved to be a vertical bone flute, and the ancestor of later generations of vertical flutes or dongxiao type instruments. People at that time used this flute to play rhythmic notes as a way of expressing their feelings about life and honoring the gods; modern musicians still use this flute to play the pentatonic scale tune "Little Cabbage".