Paris, June 27: Stone Age humans may have ripped raw
meat from the bone with their teeth but they also played
music, according to a study reporting the discovery of a
35,000-year-old flute, the oldest instrument known.
Found in the Ach Valley of southern Germany, the nearly
intact five-hole flute was meticulously carved with stone
tools from the hollow wing-bone of a giant vulture, says the
study, published in the British journal Nature.
Fragments from three ivory flutes unearthed at the same
site, along with nearby instruments not quite as old, suggest
that humans who had then only recently migrated to the Upper
Danube enjoyed a rich musical culture.
And a stunning female figurine from the same period found
only a couple paces from the bone flute, reported last month,
points to a broader artistic flowering.
Indeed, the area within the cave that yielded the flutes
reveals a veritable artist's atelier.
There is debris from the flint tools used to chip the
instruments; traces of worked bone and ivory from mammoth,
horse, reindeer and bear; and burnt bone, one of the
ingredients -- along with minerals, charcoal, blood and animal
fats -- used by Stone Age humans for cave painting.
Bureau Report
First Published: Saturday, June 27, 2009, 09:11