The Bone Flute: The Worlds Oldest Known Musical Instrument

What is a Bone Flute?

The bone flute is one of the oldest known musical instruments in Western Europe. These flutes carved from bone appear to be between 43,000 and 82,000 years old. Dr. Ivan Turk, a paleontologist from the Academy of Sciences in Ljubljana recently discovered a segment of an ancient bone flute at a Neanderthal campsite. This extraordinary find proves that the people of the Stone Age had developed expressions of musical creativity.  

• National Geographic: News article about the finding of the oldest bone flute in an Eastern cave.
• Primitive Ways: Photographs of a bone flute made from the wing bone of a large bird and a flute made from a lamb leg bone.
• Neanderthal Flute: Discussion of the Neanderthal ancient bone flute found by Dr. Ivan Turk.
• The British Museum: Overview of the bone flute, as well as several examples such as the flute from the rockshelter at Les Roches.
• Bone Flute Found in Cave: News story about the bird-bone flute that was found scattered in a German cave.
• Oldest Playable Musical Instrument: Article about the bone flute found in China that is nearly 9,000 years old.
• The Neanderthal Flute: Summary of the discovery of the Neanderthal flute used as evidence for the foundation of the diatonic scale.
• Musical Instruments: Photographs and information on bone flutes and their history.
• Jiahu Bone Flute and Primitive Music: Details on the bone flute that was excavated in Wuyang County by Chinese archeologists.
• Ice-Age Musicians: Article about ancient bone flutes discovered around the world that appear to be over 30,000 years old.
• Stone Age Bone Float in 6500 BC: Short video about the origin of the bone flute with photographs of real life examples.
• History of the Native American Flute: Article on the history of ancient flutes and how they were discovered by humans.
• Sounds of Science: News story about researchers studying bone flutes to determine their original use.

The Workings of the Bone Flute

Many bone flutes have five holes, such as the bird-bone flute found scattered in a small plot of a cave in southern Germany. The second, third, and fourth hole that line up across the bone indicates that the instrument is indeed a flute. The distance between hole two and hole three is twice that of hole three and hole four. This merely means that the flute consists of a whole-tone and a half-tone within the scale. A combination of a whole-tone and half-tone make up a seven-note diatonic scale.

• Oldest Musical Instrument Found: Magazine article about the earliest modern carved flute found in Germany.
• The Music of Sound: Information on ancient forms of music and the earliest found musical instruments.
• Chinese Earliest Musical Instrument: Details of the bamboo and bone flute, as well as other types of ancient instruments.
• The Bone Age Flute: Article on the bone flute by the BBC news science editor, Dr. David Whitehouse.
• Timeline of Art History: Article on the Jiahu bone flute that appears to be from 7,000 to 5,700 BC.
• Ancient Music and Instruments: Discussion of the sheep bone flute, deer bone flute, simple blowing horns, prillar horns, and other ancient instruments.
• Stone Age – Bone Flutes: History of the bone flute and other important artifacts of that time period.
• Ice Age and Stone Age Flute: Photographs and details of the original bone flutes studied by researchers and archeologists.
• 10^th Century Bone Flute: Information from The Galpin Society Journal about the finding of a 10^th century bone flute in North Elmham, Norfolk.
• History of the Native American Flute: Page that describes what native bone flutes looked like and how they were made.
• Ancient Birds – Stone Age Music: Article about a bone flute made from the wing-bone of a swan.
• Oldest Musical Instruments Still Play a Tune: Information from the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology about the Neolithic flutes carved from the wing-bones of red-crowned cranes.