Date of discovery: 1930s
Location of discovery: Chan Chan, Peru
News states:
The thousand-year-old telephone, a marvel of ancient invention, surprises almost all who hear about it. Reportedly found in in the ruins of Chan Chan, Peru, the delicate communication artifact is thought to have been made 1,200 to 1,400 years ago and is known as the earliest example of telephone technology in the Western Hemisphere.
This seemingly out-of-place-artifact is evidence of the impressive innovation of the coastal Chimu people in the Río Moche Valley of northern Peru.
Ramiro Matos, curator of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) told Smithsonian, “This is unique. Only one was ever discovered. It comes from the consciousness of an indigenous society with no written language.”
The early “telephone” appears to be a rudimentary speech transmission device, much like the “lover’s telephone” that has been known for hundreds of years but which became popular in the 19th century, It was usually comprised of tin cans connected with string, used to speak back and forth; and mostly seen as a novelty.
This ancient Chimu device, described as an instrument, however, is composed of two gourd tops bound with a length of cord.
The gourds, each 3.5 inches (8.9 centimeters) long are coated in resin and act as transmitters and receivers of sound. Around each of the gourd bases is stretched-hide membrane. The 75-foot (22.8 meter) line connecting the two ends is made of cotton-twine.
This one-of-a-kind artifact, dating to around the 12th and 13th centuries predates the earliest research into telephones from 1833 (which began with non-electric string devices) by more than a thousand years.
The gourd-and-string device is too fragile to physically test, but researchers can piece together how the instrument might have worked. What they must continue to speculate on, however, is how the Chimu used this ancient phone: what was its purpose?
As the Chimu were known to be a top-down society, it stands to reason that only the elite or priest class would have been in possession of such a valuable instrument, posits Matos.
The precious telephone, with the seemingly magical ability to channel voices across space to be heard directly in the ear of the receiver was, “a tool designed for an executive level of communication” said Matos.
