Oldest flute found

Subject: Oldest flute found
From: Bert
Date: 25 May 12 - 01:35 PM

Earliest Musical instrument found

Researchers have identified what they say are the oldest-known musical instruments in the world.

The flutes, made from bird bone and mammoth ivory, come from a cave in southern Germany which contains early evidence for the occupation of Europe by modern humans - Homo sapiens.

Scientists used carbon dating to show that the flutes were between 42,000 and 43,000 years old.

The findings are described in the Journal of Human Evolution.

Subject: RE: Oldest flute found
From: GUEST,Lael
Date: 25 May 12 - 06:22 PM

And from what I read they used the do-re-mi scale.

Subject: RE: Oldest flute found
From: Jack Campin
Date: 25 May 12 - 06:34 PM

That particular urban legend was about a different flute found a few years ago.

There was no way to conclude anything about the scale from the fragment they found.

This one seems have had at least four equally spaced holes. You can't tell which end the embouchure was at, or how much space there was between the embouchure and the fingerholes. Nor can you even tell if it's a flute or a reed instrument.

There are a vast number of different scales in use in present-day simple flutes from around the world. In a lot of cultures, there simply isn't a fixed notion of scale - any selection of distinguishable pitches is okay. There's no reason to believe Palaeolithic Europe had any scale you could put a name to.

Subject: RE: Oldest flute found
From: GUEST
Date: 25 May 12 - 06:53 PM

Obviously it was played by angels or some such, seeing as humans weren't invented until 6000 years ago.

Subject: RE: Oldest flute found
From: frogprince
Date: 25 May 12 - 06:56 PM

That's guest, me; cookie keeps crumbling.

Subject: RE: Oldest flute found
From: Jeri
Date: 25 May 12 - 07:04 PM

Wikipedia has "modern humans" showing up 200,000 years ago, and Neaderthal fading out of the fossil record 25,000 years ago.

Subject: RE: Oldest flute found
From: Bill D
Date: 25 May 12 - 07:18 PM

Makes me wonder if anyone has tried tooting one of them.

Subject: RE: Oldest flute found
From: Jack Campin
Date: 25 May 12 - 07:24 PM

I have a couple of bone flutes made to a similar design by Lindsay Porteous - break the ends off like the one in that picture to lose the Araldited wooden block and they'd pass as something from the Stone Age. They don't sound much different from a small Generation. Lindsay has recorded a CD with them (added reverb simulating a very large cave).

Subject: RE: Oldest flute found
From: Bert
Date: 25 May 12 - 07:57 PM

I'll have to go back and read that again. I don't recall anything about a scale. It would most likely have been a subset of a chromatic scale possibly pentatonic.

Subject: RE: Oldest flute found
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 26 May 12 - 08:36 AM

For playing Celtic music, obviously.

Subject: RE: Oldest flute found
From: GUEST,Stone age stoner
Date: 26 May 12 - 08:41 AM

Dude, who says it was a flute - maybe it's the oldest hash pipe, maaaan...

Subject: RE: Oldest flute found
From: stallion
Date: 26 May 12 - 09:34 AM

lol - the voice of rationality Stone ager!