Bone and ivory flute
Flauta de hueso y marfil
- Date
- c. 42 ka · confidence high
- Place
- Hohle Fels and Geißenklösterle, Swabian Jura, Germany
- Credited to
- Homo sapiens (Aurignacian)
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Flutes made from vulture radius bone and mammoth ivory with five tuned finger holes. The oldest musical instruments, implying scales and collective music.
The Divje Babe flute (Slovenia, c. 50–60 ka, Neanderthal) is heavily disputed: the holes may be hyena bite marks.
What it led to
- Music as social cohesion and ritual
- Group synchronisation: dance and ceremony
- Transmission of musical traditions and scales
- Precision ivory work (assembled and sealed pieces)
Built on
- Divje Babe flute (possible Neanderthal instrument)c. 60-43 ka
- Blade technology (Mode 4)c. 50 ka
- Blade technology (Mode 4)