Does it really matter which is the very oldest? I find it interesting to discuss which of several instruments are very old.

So I have two candidates.

In the recent documentary "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" someone plays a replica of a flute found in the cave. The art in the cave is dated at 30,000 years.

(That's a fine movie, but the sound track is pretty bad, especially when played loud, as it was for me. In fact, I had to leave.)

My husband once told me of archaeologists who were excavating a cave used by hominids much earlier than homo sapiens. (Before Neanderthals, too.) There were curious hollows in the cave formations, and somebody discovered that if you picked up a bone and struck the hollows with it, that various musical tones were produced.

I believe that cave must be the earliest known musical thing. Too bad I don't know the name of the book.

A few years ago, a 12-year-old guide in a cave we were touring did the same thing. He called it rock music. He was definitely homo sapiens.