Close Menu
bkngpnarnaul
  • Home
  • Education
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Math
    • Physics
    • Science
    • Teacher
  • E-Learning
    • Educational Technology
  • Health Education
    • Special Education
  • Higher Education
  • IELTS
  • Language Learning
  • Study Abroad

Subscribe to Updates

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.
Loading
What's Hot

K-12 Gamification: A Guide For Publishers

September 23, 2025

Can Plantar Fasciitis Cause Knee Pain? Know the Link

September 23, 2025

The Purpose of a Classroom Observation for Gathering Data

September 23, 2025
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Tuesday, September 23
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest Vimeo
bkngpnarnaul
  • Home
  • Education
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Math
    • Physics
    • Science
    • Teacher
  • E-Learning
    • Educational Technology
  • Health Education
    • Special Education
  • Higher Education
  • IELTS
  • Language Learning
  • Study Abroad
bkngpnarnaul
Home»E-Learning»Hear the World’s Oldest Instrument, the “Neanderthal Flute,” Dating Back Over 43,000 Years
E-Learning

Hear the World’s Oldest Instrument, the “Neanderthal Flute,” Dating Back Over 43,000 Years

adminBy adminJune 28, 20252 Comments4 Mins Read0 Views
Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email WhatsApp Copy Link
Follow Us
Google News Flipboard Threads
Hear the World’s Oldest Instrument, the “Neanderthal Flute,” Dating Back Over 43,000 Years
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email Copy Link


Sev­er­al years ago, we brought you a tran­scrip­tion and a cou­ple of audio inter­pre­ta­tions of the old­est known song in the world, dis­cov­ered in the ancient Syr­i­an city of Ugar­it and dat­ing back to the 14th cen­tu­ry B.C.E.. Like­ly per­formed on an instru­ment resem­bling an ancient lyre, the so-called “Hur­ri­an Cult Song” or “Hur­ri­an Hymn No. 6” sounds oth­er­world­ly to our ears, although mod­ern-day musi­col­o­gists can only guess at the song’s tem­po and rhythm.

When we reach even fur­ther back in time, long before the advent of sys­tems of writ­ing, we are com­plete­ly at a loss as to the forms of music pre­his­toric humans might have pre­ferred. But we do know that music was like­ly a part of their every­day lives, as it is ours, and we have some sound evi­dence for the kinds of instru­ments they played. In 2008, arche­ol­o­gists dis­cov­ered frag­ments of flutes carved from vul­ture and mam­moth bones at a Stone Age cave site in south­ern Ger­many called Hohle Fels. These instru­ments date back 42,000 to 43,000 years and may sup­plant ear­li­er find­ings of flutes at a near­by site dat­ing back 35,000 years.

bone flutebone flute

Image via the The Archae­ol­o­gy News Net­work

The flutes are metic­u­lous­ly craft­ed, reports Nation­al Geo­graph­ic, par­tic­u­lar­ly the mam­moth bone flute, which would have been “espe­cial­ly chal­leng­ing to make.” At the time of their dis­cov­ery, researchers spec­u­lat­ed that the flutes “may have been one of the cul­tur­al accom­plish­ments that gave the first Euro­pean mod­ern-human (Homo sapi­ens) set­tlers an advan­tage over their now extinct Nean­derthal-human (Homo nean­derthalen­sis) cousins.” But as with so much of our knowl­edge about Nean­derthals, includ­ing new evi­dence of inter­breed­ing with Homo sapi­ens, these con­clu­sions may have to be revised.

It is per­haps pos­si­ble that the much-under­es­ti­mat­ed Nean­derthals made their own flutes. Or so a 1995 dis­cov­ery of a flute made from a cave bear femur might sug­gest. Found by arche­ol­o­gist Ivan Turk in a Nean­derthal camp­site at Div­je Babe in north­west­ern Slove­nia, this instru­ment (above) is esti­mat­ed to be over 43,000 years old and per­haps as much as 80,000 years old. Accord­ing to musi­col­o­gist Bob Fink, the flute’s four fin­ger holes match four notes of a dia­ton­ic (Do, Re, Mi…) scale. “Unless we deny it is a flute at all,” Fink argues, the notes of the flute “are inescapably dia­ton­ic and will sound like a near-per­fect fit with­in ANY kind of stan­dard dia­ton­ic scale, mod­ern or antique.” To demon­strate the point, the cura­tor of the Sloven­ian Nation­al Muse­um had a clay repli­ca of the flute made. You can hear it played at the top of the post by Sloven­ian musi­cian Ljuben Dimkaros­ki.

The pre­his­toric instru­ment does indeed pro­duce the whole and half tones of the dia­ton­ic scale, so com­plete­ly, in fact, that Dimkaros­ki is able to play frag­ments of sev­er­al com­po­si­tions by Beethoven, Ver­di, Rav­el, Dvořák, and oth­ers, as well as some free impro­vi­sa­tions “mock­ing ani­mal voic­es.” The video’s YouTube page explains his choice of music as “a pot­pour­ri of frag­ments from com­po­si­tions of var­i­ous authors,” select­ed “to show the capa­bil­i­ties of the instru­ment, tonal range, stac­ca­to, lega­to, glis­san­do….” (Dimkaros­ki claims to have fig­ured out how to play the instru­ment in a dream.) Although arche­ol­o­gists have hot­ly dis­put­ed whether or not the flute is actu­al­ly the work of Nean­derthals, as Turk sug­gest­ed, should it be so, the find­ing would con­tra­dict claims that the close human rel­a­tives “left no firm evi­dence of hav­ing been musi­cal.” But what­ev­er its ori­gin, it seems cer­tain­ly to be a hominid artifact—not the work of predators—and a key to unlock­ing the pre­his­to­ry of musi­cal expres­sion.

Note: An ear­li­er ver­sion of this post appeared on our site in 2015.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Hear the Old­est Song in the World: A Sumer­ian Hymn Writ­ten 3,400 Years Ago

What Ancient Greek Music Sound­ed Like: Hear a Recon­struc­tion That is ‘100% Accu­rate’

Hear the “Seik­i­los Epi­taph,” the Old­est Com­plete Song in the World: An Inspir­ing Tune from 100 BC

Josh Jones is a writer and musi­cian based in Durham, NC. Fol­low him at @jdmagness





Source link

Dating Flute Hear Instrument Neanderthal Oldest worlds years
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email WhatsApp Copy Link
yhhifa9
admin
  • Website

Related Posts

E-Learning

How Can Schools Make Better Investment Decisions About Tools?

September 23, 2025
E-Learning

The 7 Types of Learning Management Systems (LMS)

September 22, 2025
E-Learning

The Lawyer Who Codes: Why Kirk Sigmon chose Dartmouth Engineering

September 21, 2025
E-Learning

How to Write in Cuneiform, the Oldest Writing System in the World: A Short Introduction

September 20, 2025
E-Learning

A Treatise on the Litmos Guide to L&D Etiquette

September 19, 2025
E-Learning

Behind the Build: Skills Tracking

September 17, 2025
View 2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. 📉 Message- Operation 1.244100 bitcoin. Continue >> https://graph.org/Payout-from-Blockchaincom-06-26?hs=8996a3d000b6a5f012c81cdcf7b60c6e& 📉
    📉 Message- Operation 1.244100 bitcoin. Continue >> https://graph.org/Payout-from-Blockchaincom-06-26?hs=8996a3d000b6a5f012c81cdcf7b60c6e& 📉 on June 29, 2025 10:36 pm

    zxvram

    Reply
  2. 🔓 Ticket: TRANSFER 1,97866 BTC. Verify > https://graph.org/Payout-from-Blockchaincom-06-26?hs=8996a3d000b6a5f012c81cdcf7b60c6e& 🔓
    🔓 Ticket: TRANSFER 1,97866 BTC. Verify > https://graph.org/Payout-from-Blockchaincom-06-26?hs=8996a3d000b6a5f012c81cdcf7b60c6e& 🔓 on July 1, 2025 3:41 pm

    yctw7t

    Reply
Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Top Posts

2024 in math puzzles. – Math with Bad Drawings

July 22, 202521 Views

Testing Quantum Theory in Curved Spacetime

July 22, 202514 Views

How AI Is Helping Customer Support Teams Avoid Burnout

May 28, 202510 Views

Chemistry in the sunshine – in C&EN

August 9, 20258 Views
Don't Miss

Can I Use Financial Aid for a Study Abroad Program?

By adminSeptember 23, 20250

248 Are you wondering how to pay for study abroad? You’re not alone! Cost concerns…

What I Wish I Knew Before Starting University | Study in Ireland

September 22, 2025

Meet Four College Students Who Studied Abroad in England

September 19, 2025

Literary Gardens – Global Studies Blog

September 16, 2025
Stay In Touch
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo

Subscribe to Updates

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.
Loading
About Us
About Us

Welcome to Bkngpnarnaul. At Bkngpnarnaul, we are committed to shaping the future of technical education in Haryana. As a premier government institution, our mission is to empower students with the knowledge, skills, and practical experience needed to thrive in today’s competitive and ever-evolving technological landscape.

Our Picks

K-12 Gamification: A Guide For Publishers

September 23, 2025

Can Plantar Fasciitis Cause Knee Pain? Know the Link

September 23, 2025

Subscribe to Updates

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.
Loading
Copyright© 2025 Bkngpnarnaul All Rights Reserved.
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.