One aulos touched by Max Bumberg
Fragments of bones discovered in Selinunte, Sicily, allowed to create a aulos – an instrument of breath that played a central role in the religious and social life of the ancient Greek world.
Located on the southwest coast of Sicily, in Italy, the city of Selinunte It was one of the most important colonies of the former Magna Greece.
According to the Athenian historian Tucidides, the city was founded by a colony of the Sicilian city of Megara Hyblaea during the Solicle VII aC
During excavations in Temple Rthe main sanctuary of the Archaeological Park of Selinunte, a team of archaeologists found two bone fragments that were identified as belonging to a aulosan instrument of breath frequently represented in ancient art.
The fragments date from the sixth century AC and belong to the call “Primitive type”a classification aligned with similar instruments found in both continental Greece and its Western colonies.
In 2023, the Italian musicologist Angela Beliia used advanced scan methods to create a replica printed in 3D of aulospaving the way to study both in its structural analysis and in the exploration of its acoustic properties.
The results of the study, as well as images of the 3D printed musical instrument, were presented in a published in the magazine Archeology and calculators.
Angela Bellia / Archeology and Calculators
Computerized tomography and manual manufacturing processes of a copy of the ancient musical instrument “Auluos”
Archaeologists suggest that this particular instrument was probably Used in rituals to honor Demeterthe Olympic goddess of harvests and agriculture, which presided over the harvests, grains, food and fertility of the earth.
“These data and comparisons will help us increase our knowledge about the music of ancient Greece, particularly in the western polis of Selinus,” the musicologist said at the time.
“In this place, the importance of instrumental and coral activities It is indicated by the discovery of musical instruments and other sound objectsalong with sculptures, painted pots and terracotta statuettes of sanctuaries and necropolis that have musical representations, ”added Beliia.
Angela Beliia’s 3D printing is not the first known reconstitution of a aulos. In 2017, the experimental musician and flute manufacturer discovered The iconic instrument, similar to a double flute, and immediately fell in love with him.
BRUMBERG was not too long to create its version of aulos – which presented in a video published on his YouTube channel in 2019. Here’s the sound of aulosthe instrument that played the music of the gods:
