Italy's 5,000-yr-old instrument hints at sounds of Rome's prehistoric past

Many everyday objects were used in prehistoric times to make music

When the archaeologist Giovanni Carboni first came upon the oddly shaped ceramic object during an excavation in a Roman suburb in 2006, he was baffled.

“I said — please don’t write this, though, because I said a swear word — I said: ‘What the heck is this thing,’ ” Dr. Carboni recalled recently.

The object resembled half an oversize walnut shell, the rim perforated evenly with holes. It had been found in a tomb, placed next to the body of an adult man (identified only by his teeth after centuries lying in acidic earth).

“I had no idea what it was,” Dr. Carboni