The flute is the oldest manufactured instrument, dated 30-40,000 years
Evidence
The flute is the earliest known manufactured musical instrument. Hollow bones 30,000 or 40,000 years old with purpose-drilled toneholes have been unearthed. There are hundreds of variants from as many cultures. They are all essentially an open tube with air blown across a large opening near one end, and toneholes for producing various notes (figure 16.27). — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 1568
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- CANDY: Delightful fact: purpose-drilled bone flutes are among humanity’s oldest manufactured artifacts.
- SEED: Potential essay angle: musical instrument design as an unbroken 40,000-year engineering tradition — the flute’s acoustics barely changed.