Archaeologists in Germany have uncovered the world’s oldest known musical instrument – a flute made from a vulture bone which is believed to be 35,000 years old.
The ancient flute was found in the Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany by a team led by University of Tuebingen archaeologist Nicholas Conard.
Conard said the find proved that music was important to early modern humans and showed how the creation of music has a historic role in our culture.
“It’s very clear that music played an important role in these people’s lives,” he says.
“There were certainly, you know, the Michelangelos back then, who were the highly talented people for carving masterpieces,” he said. “But the Michelangelos also had to hunt and butcher and chip stones and do all sorts of things.”
Edward Hagen, an anthropologist at Washington State University Vancouver who was not involved in the research, told the Boston Globe the find was a link to our past.
“Emotionally, you can look at this thing and recognise yourself; you can see this is a flute, you can imagine yourself playing it, you can imagine yourself making it,” he said. “It’s essentially a connection between us and people who lived 35,000 years ago.”
“To see this early in the archaeological record suggests it might be a fundamental aspect of human nature. … It does at least hint that music lies close to our foundation of common humanity,” he added.
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