What Stone Age instruments sounded like
The flutes made from bird bone are about 40,000 years old.
Caves in south-western Germany yielded flutes made from vulture bone and mammoth ivory about 40,000 years old — the oldest instruments whose purpose is beyond dispute.
The finger holes are not placed at random: their spacing corresponds to stable intervals. Replicas made from the originals produce a clear tone across a range of about an octave and a half.
Making such a flute from ivory required splitting the tusk lengthwise, hollowing out both halves and gluing them back together airtight — dozens of hours of work. Music was not a casual pastime but part of the culture.
There are more contested finds too. A bone plate from Divje Babe in Slovenia with holes in it is sometimes described as a Neanderthal flute, though many researchers read the holes as the tooth marks of a cave hyena.