Ancient telephones?

http://hauntedohiobooks.com/news/the-two-thousand-year-old-telephone/

You know, I wouldn't be a bit surprised.  From my (very limited) understanding, the knowledge of batteries may well have been known by one or more ancient peoples, and perhaps ways to generate electricity through movement, etc.  It's a pretty short hop from there to having a telegraph-like system, or even a crystal radio set.