Clammers of Clay

How did the invention of clay change how we made instruments? Archaeologist Dr Brenna Hassett unearths the origins of human music.

Archaeologist Dr Brenna Hassett takes us on a several-million-year-long journey to ask how we came to be the species that makes music. It is the story of noise. Purposeful, beautiful noise. And the unbelievable talent we have for adapting the material world we live in to make instruments that make music.

We’ve already looked at how our ancestors found grasses to be whistled, reeds to be blown, wood and gourd to drum and rattle, bone and stone to chime. But we are also a making species. It took us hundreds of thousands of years, but eventually we did it - we made ourselves an entirely new material. A new medium to control, to carve, and, of course, to make music. This is the story of the sound of clay.

Written and read by Dr Brenna Hassett
Produced and directed by Becky Ripley