5,000 Year Old Recordings Caught On Pottery

I think this is just about freaking incredible. Belgian scientists (previously known for their delicious chocolates), have been able to extract recordings from 5,000 year old vases. How can this be? Well, here’s the deal.

It seems that the vase makers used long sticks to carve decorations on the clay vases as they were being made on rotating stones. These sticks picked up the minute vibrations in the air (caused by, say, conversations) and transformed these into grooves and bumps, much like what happens when you make a vinyl record. The Belgian scientists then analysed these patterns and extracted what is believed to be the world’s oldest known recordings.

In this link you will see a video of a relatively pompous looking pipe-clad professor type explaining the whole deal to you in French. However, about two-thirds of the way through, you get to hear about ten seconds of the recordings in question. It’s a man, speaking in Latin, and laughing.

It’s kind of eerie. Think about it. This was recorded, what, 3,000 years before JC was even born!

Probably some exposed fake on MythBusters anyways...