Archaeologists Uncover an 8,000-Year-Old Dance Party

Ancient hunter-gatherers made musical pendants from elk teeth

Dance has been a part of human culture for thousands of years. Even in hunter-gatherer societies, dance played an important cultural function. It is rare we uncover the actual instruments that our ancestors used thousands of years ago. Despite being born thousands of years later, we still share this joy of dancing.

Archaeologists analyzed elk teeth from the Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov burial site in Russia. The original excavation found these teeth near burial sites. Most of the teeth had etchings suggesting they used them as musical instruments. Along with over 4000 elk teeth, more than a 1000 teeth belonging to bears, wolves and beavers.

The wear-and-tear on the teeth also suggested people wore them as musical pendants. Teeth would be strung up on a necklace for wearing. But the researchers needed to validate this model of wear-and-tear. To figure out how they sounded, they wore and danced with the pendants for six straight hours. This let them see what kinds of markings occur when the teeth clank against each other.

Auditory archaeologist and Academy of Finland Research Fellow Riitta Rainio from the University of Helsinki explained:

Wearing such rattlers while dancing makes it easier to immerse yourself in the sound scape, eventually letting the sound and rhythm take control of your movements. It is as if the dancer is led in the dance by someone.

Archaeology offers an important glimpse into the past. Archaeology offers an important glimpse into the past. Despite substantial differences in technology and lifestyles, we share our joy of dance.