It is a very rare treat when something as intangible as a one thousand-year-old sound is recovered from an excavation. This is what has happened as the result of a discovery from a 10th century pit at Coppergate in York.

Amongst the debris in the pit was a small rectangular wooden object less than 10cm long. There was a hole in one corner and five tubes of different lengths had been bored through the wood, the smallest one broken off along the side. What was this strange object?