ANN ARBOR—Is it music or noise? Strictly speaking the choice is highly personal and subjective. But devices such as rattles, animal bells, and children’s noisemakers, none of which are usually classified as musical instruments, are included in “Music in Roman Egypt” at the University of Michigan’s Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.

From wooden clappers, bronze cymbals and bells, to a bone whistle, wooden reed-flute, and wooden castanets, the music and musical instruments of Roman Egypt are featured in the exhibit continuing through Sept. 26.

The museum’s unique collection of excavated musical instruments from fieldwork in Karanis and elsewhere in Egypt join with its artifacts that relate to musical instruments and the people who played them. These materials are supplemented by papyri from the University Library, which include actual musical notation as well as documents of musicians’ lives in Roman Egypt.

When Egypt came under the political domination of the Macedonian Greeks and later the Romans, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures, languages, and populations all converged, and the music of the period reflected these diverse influences.

One of the most significant changes in music in Egypt during the Graeco-Roman period was the introduction of Greek-style musical notation. Egyptians did not apparently notate their music before the Graeco-Roman period. Instrumentation of music in Graeco-Roman Egypt also showed the influences of Greek and (to a lesser extent) Roman traditions. Thus, Egyptian style harps, lyres, and lutes continued to be used, but Egyptian reed flutes fell under the influence of the Greek aulos (a reed instrument similar to an oboe) and the Greek-style Kithara (a stringed instrument similar to a lyre) became the choice of professionals.

Percussion instruments showed changes in the Graeco-Roman period as well. Egyptian-style clappers in the shape of hands and arms gave way to the L-shaped castanets seen in Greek vase paintings, then to the pinecone-shaped castanets typical of later periods. Examples of both were found at Karanis.

“Egyptian music for feasts and festivals and traditions of religious music integrated with the Hellenistic traditions of formal public performances and music in the theater, and Greek theoretical approaches to music,” says curator Terry Wilfong, “as well as Roman traditions of military music and the concept of music as a leisure pastime.”

The Kelsey Museum is open Tuesday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 1-4 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, contact the museum at (734) 764-9304.