“Three Vultures”
archival pigment print
@ 2009
The flutes [made from the bones of vultures] are the oldest musical instruments found to date.
The researchers say in the Journal Nature that music was widespread in pre-historic times.
Music, they suggest, may have been one of a suite of behaviours displayed by our own species which helped give them an edge over the Neanderthals.
The team from Tubingen University have published details of three flutes found in the Hohle Fels cavern in southwest Germany.
The cavern is already well known as a site for signs of early human efforts; in May, members of the same team unveiled a Hohle Fels find that could be the world’s oldest Venus figure.
The most well-preserved of the flutes is made from a vulture’s wing bone, measuring 20cm long with five finger holes and two “V”-shaped notches on one end of the instrument into which the researchers assume the player blew. (Via BBC.com)