BBC gets into some *really* vintage sound, grooving with the world’s oldest flutes:
The flutes, made from bird bone and mammoth ivory, come from a cave in southern Germany which contains early evidence for the occupation of Europe by modern humans – Homo sapiens.
Scientists used carbon dating to show that the flutes were between 42,000 and 43,000 years old.
The findings are described in the Journal of Human Evolution.
…
Musical instruments may have been used in recreation or for religious ritual, experts say.
And some researchers have argued that music may have been one of a suite of behaviours displayed by our species which helped give them an edge over the Neanderthals – who went extinct in most parts of Europe 30,000 years ago.
Music could have played a role in the maintenance of larger social networks, which may have helped our species expand their territory at the expense of the more conservative Neanderthals.
I don’t think I buy that Neanderthal theory… for one thing, if Neanderthals weren’t, um, social, then we wouldn’t have their DNA today. Maybe those mammoth-bone flutes just set the stage for prehistoric romance….