This figure compares the earliest documented origin phrasing we could parse for each instrument.

• The year comes from the instrument page itself when Wikipedia exposes a developed or invented field, with rough century and era phrases converted into one comparable point on the timeline.
• When that field is missing but Wikidata carries an inception claim, the game uses that as a fallback anchor.
• This is about documented origin stories and surviving source conventions, not the birth certificate of every ancestor form.

Old instruments are usually a braid of prototypes, revivals, and renamed relatives. The number is still a useful way into the argument.