Archaeologists have found a small number of musical instruments from the Neolithic Hongshan era

a clarinet or recorder made from an animal leg bone; it can actually be played

we have also seen bone/jade flutes

for comparison, some bone flutes of roughly the same antiquity from Henan

 there was even a jade whistle, whose polish still looks almost new

but the most intriquing was a set of six jade tubes found together

it is most likely that they were used together as a multi tone panpipe, similar to a stone panpipe found in a Chu tomb

again for comparison, panpipes used a visiting south pacific musicians

 and various panpipe designs from different historical periods