In 2009 an ancient flute, thought to be the world’s oldest instrument, was found in a cave in Germany.
Made of vulture bone, the instrument dates from around the time that humans began colonising Europe, around 33,000BC. The discovery by a group of scientists has led them to believe that humans may have played music much earlier than previously thought.
Could this be the world's oldest instrument?
Fragments of three flutes were found in the Hohle Fels cavern in southwest Germany by a team from Tübingen University. The near-complete vulture bone flute is 20cm long, has five finger holes and v-shaped notches that would have acted as a mouthpiece.
Scientists think the instrument would have been held like a recorder. Conversely, though, the player would have blown across it like a flute. The other two flutes dug up by the archaeologists are made from ivory, thought to be from mammoth tusks.
When did humans first make music?
Finding these fragments of what appears to be the world's oldest instrument suggests that music was an important part of day-to-day life for early modern humans some 35,000 years ago, during the late Paleolithic period. And playing music may have helped maintain beneficial social networks. Which, in turn, may explain why modern humans survived while the Neanderthals with whom they co-existed became extinct.
![Paleolithic bone flute from Hohle Fels cave, Germany](https://c02.purpledshub.com/uploads/sites/43/2024/06/GettyImages-88658984.jpg?webp=1&w=1200)
‘Music was used in many kinds of social contexts: possibly religious, possibly recreational – much like we use music today in many kinds of settings,’ Professor Nicholas Conard of Tübingen University told BBC News. ‘The modern humans that came into our area already had a whole range of symbolic artefacts, figurative art, depictions of mythological creatures, many kinds of personal ornaments and also a well-developed musical tradition.’
And there's the fascinating tale of (what we believe to be) the world's oldest instrument.
Top image by Getty Images