(sic) that the holes are the result of a carnivore's bite. Probable
fortunate that the thing still plays, as per the recorded sample.
The Divje Babe flute, that is dated at around 43,000 years ago, has
been suggested as Neanderthal made.
"Music did not directly produce a more effective subsistence economy
and greater reproductive success, he concluded, but it might have
fostered social cohesion and new forms of communication, which
indirectly contributed to expansion of modern humans to the detriment
of the culturally more conservative Neanderthals." Then again, he
never saw what went on the back of the cave when the flutist really
put on the sounds.
July 6, 2009
Golden oldies
Discovery of the world's oldest known musical instrument, a 35,000-
year-old flute, suggests the first Europeans had a fairly
sophisticated culture.
By Thomas H. Maugh II
Los Angeles Times
The wing bone of a griffon vulture with five precisely drilled holes
in it is the oldest known musical instrument, a 35,000-year-old relic
of an early human society that drank beer, played flute and drums and
danced around the campfire on cold winter evenings, researchers said.
Excavated from a cave in southwest Germany, the nearly complete flute
suggests that the first humans to occupy Europe had a fairly
sophisticated culture, complete with alcohol, adornments, art objects
and music that they developed there or even brought with them from
Africa when they moved to the new continent 40,000 years or so ago.
"It is not too surprising that music was a part of their culture,"
said archaeologist John J. Shea of Stony Brook University, who was not
involved in the research. "Every single society we know of has music.
The more widespread a characteristic is today, the more likely it is
to spread back into the past."
The making of music probably extended even further back into the past,
he said, but the flute may represent "the first time that people
invested time and energy in making instruments that were (durable
enough to be) preserved."
The flute was discovered last summer in the Hohle Fels cave, about 14
miles southwest of the city of Ulm, by archaeologist Nicholas J.
Conard of the University of Tubingen in Germany. Conard described the
find in a report published online by the journal Nature
(www.nature.com).
"It's unambiguously the oldest instrument in the world," Conard told
The Associated Press.
Other archaeologists agreed with Conard's assessment.
April Nowell, a Paleolithic archaeologist at the University of
Victoria in Canada, said the flute predates previously discovered
instruments, "but the dates are not so much older that it's surprising
or controversial." Nowell was not involved in Conard's research.
In 1995, archaeologist Ivan Turk excavated a bear bone artifact from a
cave in Slovenia, known as the
But other archaeologists, including Nowell, have challenged that
theory, suggesting instead that the twin holes on the 4.3-inch-long
(11-centimeter-long) bone were made by a carnivore's bite.
Turk did not respond to an Associated Press e-mail seeking comment.
The cave is the same one where Conard found the recently described
40,000-year-old Venus figurine in the same layer of sediment, the
oldest known representation of the female form, and a host of other
artifacts.
The cave, which had been occupied for millennia, "is one of the most
wonderfully clear windows into the past, where conditions of
preservation are just right," Shea said.
The reconstructed flute, a little under 9 inches long, was found in 12
pieces in a layer of sediment nearly 9 feet below the cave's floor.
The surfaces of the flute are in excellent condition and reveal many
details about its manufacture. The maker carved two deep, V-shaped
notches into one end, presumably to form the end into which the
musician blew, and four fine lines near the finger holes. The other
end is broken off, but Conard estimates the intact flute was probably
2 to 3 inches longer.
In 2004, Conard found a 30,000-year-old, 7-inch, three-holed ivory
flute at the nearby Geissenklosterle cave, and he has found fragments
of others. Combined, the finds indicate the development of a strong
musical tradition in the region, accompanied by the development of
figurative art and other innovations, Conard said.
Music did not directly produce a more effective subsistence economy
and greater reproductive success, he concluded, but it might have
fostered social cohesion and new forms of communication, which
indirectly contributed to expansion of modern humans to the detriment
of the culturally more conservative Neanderthals.
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