The
Guardian: An orchestra of ancient instruments, many of
which exist only in paintings and yellowing manuscripts, will
perform its first concert at the end of the year.Many of the
instruments have not been heard since the times of Socrates in
the fifth century BC, though some of the instruments date back
even further, to the bronze age a thousand years
earlier.Scientists are reconstructing the sounds of the
instruments, including the earliest predecessors of the bass
guitar, harp, and oboe, by building mathematical models of them
on computers and using descriptions in ancient texts and
paintings on artifacts recovered from archaeological sites in
Greece.
