The Bagpipe Society

An Amazing Discovery

Scientists for the University of Vigo believe they have found bagpipes, from the south of Galicia and Portugal, which have been in use from the Middle Ages.

Starting from the idea that the fingers wear the wood that surrounds the holes of a bagpipe chanter when playing, for six years we have been developing a method that tries to find out if it is possible to date a chanter by its wear. After measuring 144 old chanters from all of northwest Iberia, many experiments, and a lot of statistical analysis with the help of the mathematician Iván Area, we have managed to develop a mathematical model that calculates the time of use of a chanter by its wear.

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