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That 40,000 year old bone flute from Germany kind of blew my mind
I was reading through a back issue of Archaeology magazine at my dentist's office in Boise and came across a write up on the Hohle Fels flute. The thing is made from a griffon vulture wing bone and it's roughly 40,000 years old, which means people were carving instruments before they had pottery or farms. I always pictured early humans as just surviving, you know, hunting and hiding from the cold, but someone sat down and drilled five holes in a bird bone just to make music. It really changed how I think about what those folks cared about. Does anyone know if they've found other instruments from that same cave site, or is that flute kind of a one off?
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paige_craig23d ago
Hohle Fels actually gave us more than just that one flute, they've pulled a few bone flutes and some ivory ones out of there too. My own musical skills top out at playing a kazoo badly, so the idea of some Ice Age person nailing five precise holes in a vulture bone is humbling. Seems like music wasn't a side thing for them at all, it was just part of being human.
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