Scientists from Tuebingen University made the discovery near Stuttgart in the Swabian Alps, in the Geissenkloesterle cave, where two other, smaller flutes made from swan bones were discovered more than a decade ago.
The ivory flute, pieced together out of 31 fragments, has three finger holes and is 18.7 cm long.
Using a variety of methods, the instrument has been dated as being at least more than 30,000, possibly about 37,000 years old, making it older than all other known instruments, the researchers said.
It places the instrument's makers in the Upper Paleolithic era of the last ice age, when the last Neanderthals and the first modern humans lived in Europe.
The scientists, who published their findings in the latest edition of Archaeologisches Korrespondenzblatt, said it proved "music played an important role in the lives of our ancestors in the European Ice Age."
The team, led by Prof.Nicholas Conard, also said their find was technically much more sophisticated than the two other pre-historic flutes made from swan bones.
A player would have been capable of playing relatively complex melodies on the ivory instrument.
The three flutes showed that, "culturally, European Ice Age humans... had fully-developed modern behaviour," the scientists said.
The ivory flute is currently on display in an exhibition on ice age music in the Wuerttembergisches Landesmuseum in Stuttgart. It can also be seen by visiting the web link given on the right of this page.
Related
External Links
(Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - links will open in new window)
More Arts Headlines »
- Palace of the End nominated for international prize
- Judith Thompson, the Montreal-born playwright of Palace of the End, has been named a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
- Cruise marries celebrity to religious fervour: author
- Tom Cruise's YouTube endorsement of Scientology is part of his role as a celebrity advocate in the same tradition as Bono and Angelina Jolie, says the author of an unauthorized biography of the Mission Impossible star.
- Arctic Monkeys get 7 NME Award nominations
- The Arctic Monkeys have scored a record seven nominations for Britain's NME music awards, organizers announced Tuesday.
- BBC strategies focus on online content, adviser tells Heritage committee
- The importance of making content widely available online was the frequent refrain in Ottawa Tuesday morning as the BBC's chief public policy adviser spoke at a hearing of the Canadian Heritage Committee.
- Haggis to reprise Crash for small screen
- Canadian writer-director Paul Haggis plans to turn his Oscar-winning film Crash into a TV series on the U.S.-based Starz cable network.
Arts Features
Blog Watch
Most Blogged about CBC.ca Articles
Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - link will open in new window
