A 1,200-year-old telephone is a marvel of an ancient invention that surprised almost everyone who heard it. This exquisite communication artifact, found in the site of Changchang, Peru, is reported to be known as the earliest example of telephone technology in the Western Hemisphere.
This seemingly anachronistic artifact is impressive evidence of innovation by the Chimu people along the coast of the Riomoche Valley in northern Peru. The National Museum of American Indians (Curator Ramiro Matos) told the Smithsonian Institution: "It's unique. Only one was found. It comes from the consciousness of an indigenous society without a written language."
How is Chimou Telephone made?
The early "telephone" seemed to be a rudimentary voice transmission device, much like a "microphone", which had been circulating for hundreds of years but did not become popular until the 19th century. Ancient microphones were often made up of tin cans connected with ropes for back-and-forth calls; and were mostly seen as novelties. However, the ancient Chimu communication device, described as a tool, consisted of two gourds whose tops were tied with long ropes.
Each 3.5-inch (8.9 cm) long gourd is coated with resin that acts as a transmitter and receiver for sound. Each gourd base is surrounded by a stretched film. Connecting the two ends is a 75-foot (22.8 m) line, which is made of cotton thread.
The simplicity of the device obscures its archaeological significance.
The mystery of the precious ancient telephone
This one-of-a-kind artifact is reported to be more than a thousand years earlier than the earliest telephone study of 1833, which began with a non-electric rope device.
The gourd-rope device is too fragile to be physically tested, but researchers can piece together how the instrument might work. However, what they must continue to speculate about is how the Chimu people used this ancient telephone: what was its purpose?
Matos argues that it makes sense that only the elite or priestly class could possess such a precious tool, as is well known, that the Chimu are a top-down society. According to Matos, this precious telephone, with its magical ability to reach the receiver's ears across space, is "a tool designed for communication at the administrative level."
This ancient telephone may have many uses, such as communicating through a conference room or front hall between a novice or assistant and their senior elite. No face-to-face contact is required to maintain status and ensure safety.
Like many other ancient wonders, the Chimu phone may also be a device that shocks believers. A non-physical sound coming from a hand-held object can shock people and believe in the importance and status of the upper class or priesthood.
Or, there are some people who think that gourd and hemp rope are just children's toys. If these novelties are not our modern holy relics, why must we think of them as religious objects or tools of priesthood in the past?
The artifact was owned by the Prussian nobleman V. V. von Scheller, who was described as a "shady Indiana-Jones-style adventurer" who was not so flattering, and in the 1930s he was involved in several excavations in Peru, possibly by himself from the site of Changchang.
He distributed his collection to museums, and the artifact was eventually stored in the storage facility of the National Museum of American Indians in Maryland, USA. This artifact was carefully treated there and kept in a temperature-controlled environment, becoming one of the most important treasures in the museum.
Signs of skilled, creative people
Matos, an anthropologist and archaeologist who specializes in the central Andes, explains that "the Chimu people were a highly skilled and creative people", and they were an impressive engineering society. This can be demonstrated by their hydro-canal-irrigation system and its highly detailed, elaborate metalwork and crafts.
The Chimu people were the people of the Kingdom of Chimor, and their beautiful capital was Changchang (or Shangshang), a sprawling cluster of mud-brick buildings—the largest adobe site of its kind in the world—the largest city in pre-Columbian South America. Changchang covers an area of nearly 20 square kilometers (7.7 square miles) and was inhabited by 100,000 residents around the heyday of 1200 AD. The entire city was built of molded and sun-dried mud, and almost every surface was meticulously decorated with sculptures, reliefs and wall carvings.
The Chimu culture arose around 900 AD, but was eventually conquered by the Incas around 1470 AD.
Chimu telephones and many other amazing ancient technologies remind us that ancient cultures had marvelous inventions, ideas and creations long before our "complex" modern societies dreamed of them (and sometimes again).