When was it that humankind first blew into an instrument or created a musical sound?
There was a time when the roots of music were traced to ancient Greece and Egypt. In 1922, in
the tomb of Tutankhamun, the Egyptian pharaoh who ruled Egypt a millennium before Christ, a
collection of wind instruments was found dating back to 3000 BC. These instruments became
known as Tutankhamun’s trumpets.
In 1984, about thirty flutes were discovered at an excavation site in China, dating back to the
Neolithic period. These instruments were nearly six thousand years old and are now known as
Jiahu flutes. “Gudi” in Chinese means a flute carved from bone.
The term “lithophone” in Greek means “sound stone.” The oldest lithophone found so far was
discovered at excavation sites in Vietnam, and paleontologists estimate that the oldest of these
instruments were played nearly ten thousand years ago.
The ox horn was a type of ancient hunting and signaling tool. Even today, some tribes use this
tool like a text message. Discoveries indicate that about thirty thousand years ago, the
ancestors of humans in what is now Ukraine used this instrument.
It didn’t take long before even older instruments than the ox horn were found, and suddenly the
musical history of humanity extended back more than forty thousand years. As you can see in
the following images, the Isturitz flutes are over 35,000 years old, and the Hohle Fels flute is at
least 40,000 years old.
However, archaeologists working in the Geissenklösterle caves in modern-day Germany
recently discovered bird-bone flutes dating back more than 45,000 years. Yet, our Neanderthal
competitors still have a longer musical history, as we have found a bear bone from Neanderthal
civilizations that is 60,000 years old.