OhGizmo: “It seems that the vase makers used long sticks to carve decorations on the clay vases as they were being made on rotating stones. These sticks picked up the minute vibrations in the air (caused by, say, conversations) and transformed these into grooves and bumps, much like what happens when you make a vinyl record. The Belgian scientists then analysed these patterns and extracted what is believed to be the world’s oldest known recordings.”

Pottery Recording Video (5MB mp4) – “about two-thirds of the way through, you get to hear about ten seconds of the recordings in question. It’s a man, speaking in Latin, and laughing. It’s kind of eerie. Think about it. This was recorded, what, 3,000 years before JC was even born!”