Oldest Musical Instrument Found
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 - 13:21
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Flute: The earliest modern humans in Europe carved this 8.5-inch flute from a vulture bone more than 35,000 years ago. How’s this for classic rock? German scientists have unearthed the oldest-known musical instrument fashioned by human hands. It’s a delicate flute made from the wing bone of a vulture that dates to at least 35,000 years old—just after the first modern humans entered Europe. The flute was littered among a trove of early-human loot at a mountain cave in southwest Germany, which included a few other flute fragments and a mammoth-ivory female figurine with body proportions that are beyond Rubenesque. read more