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Scientists Unearth Oldest Known Musical Instrument

Posted on: Wednesday, 24 June 2009, 16:10 CDT

Archaeologists at the University of Tuebingen in Germany say a bird-bone flute discovered in a German cave was created 35,000 years ago, making it the oldest handmade musical instrument ever discovered.

The find provides the latest evidence that early modern humans had established a creative and sophisticated culture in Europe.

The researchers, led by University of Tuebingen archaeologist Nicholas Conard, constructed the flute from 12 pieces of griffon vulture bone discovered in a small plot of the Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany. Once assembled, the pieces comprised an 8.6-inch 22-centimeter flute with five holes and a notched end that Conard said was 35,000 years old.

"It's unambiguously the oldest instrument in the world," said Conard in an interview with the Associated Press.

Other archaeologists, such as Paleolithic archaeologist April Nowell at Canada’s University of Victoria, who was not involved in the research, agree with Conard.

The flute predates previously discovered instruments "but the dates are not so much older that it's surprising or controversial," she told the AP.

The Hohle Fels flute is more comprehensive and somewhat older than bone and ivory fragments from seven other flutes unearthed in southern German caves by Conard and his team in recent years.

A separate flute excavated in Austria is thought to be some 19,000 years old, while a collection of 22 flutes unearthed in the French Pyrenees mountains is believed to be some 30,000 years old.

Conard's team excavated the Hohle Fels flute last September.  That same month they also recovered six ivory fragments, from the same layer of sediment in the cave, that form a female figurine they believe to be the oldest known sculpture of a human.

The flute and the figurine suggest that modern humans had established a complex culture in Europe 35,000 years ago, said archaeologist Wil Roebroeks of Leiden University in the Netherlands, who was not involved in Conard's study.

Although it’s hard to determine how cognitively and socially sophisticated these people were, the physical evidence of their lives, including musical instruments, personal decorations and art, resemble objects associated with modern human behavior, Roebroeks told the AP.

"It shows that from the moment that modern humans enter Europe ... it is as modern in terms of material culture as it can get," he said, adding that he agrees with Conard's assessment that the flute appears to be the earliest known musical instrument.

Neanderthals also dwelled in Europe around the time the flute and figurine were created, and also frequented the Hohle Fels cave. However, both Roebroeks and Conard believe that layered deposits left behind from both species over millennia suggest the artifacts were made by early modern humans.

"The material record is so completely different from what happened in these hundreds of thousands of years before with the Neanderthals," Roebroeks said.

"I would put my money on modern humans having created and played these flutes."

Archaeologist Ivan Turk unearthed a bear bone artifact, known as the Divje Babe flute, in 1995 from a cave in Slovenia.   He has dated the instrument to be roughly 3,000 old, suggesting that Neanderthals had crafted it.

However, other archaeologists, including Nowell, challenge that idea, speculating instead that the two holes on the 4.3-inch-long bone were created by the bite of a carnivore.

Nowell said other scientists have suggested that early humans may have used spear points as wind chimes, with markings on some cave stalactites indicating they may have been used as percussive instruments.

However, there is no proof of that theory, and the Hohle Fels flute is far more convincing because it's the oldest specimen from an established type of bone and ivory flutes in Europe, she added.

"There's a distinction between sporadic appearances and the true development of, in this case, a musical culture," Nowell told the AP.

"The importance of something like this flute is it shows a well-established technique and tradition."

Conard said early modern humans were likely making music before 35,000 years ago, but the Hohle Fels flute and the others discovered throughout Europe reinforce the evidence that modern humans in Europe were exhibiting cultural behavior similar to our own.

The findings were published online Wednesday by the journal Nature.
 
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On the Net:

• University of Tuebingen
• Nature

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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