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WonderArchaeology fact

A flute carved from a vulture's wing bone about 40,000 years ago, found in Hohle Fels Cave in Germany, is one of the oldest musical instruments known.

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The story behind the card

A University of Tübingen team led by the archaeologist Nicholas Conard recovered the flute in pieces in the Swabian Alb of south-west Germany and announced it in 2009. It is about 22 cm long, made from a wing bone of a griffon vulture, with five finger holes and notches cut at the end where the player blew. It comes from Aurignacian layers, left by the first modern humans to settle in Europe, and is at least 35,000 and probably close to 40,000 years old. Pieces of flutes made from mammoth ivory, a much harder material to hollow out, have been found in the same cave and in nearby Geißenklösterle. Hohle Fels also yielded a small ivory figure of a woman, one of the oldest known carvings of a human.

Türkçe oku
Almanya'daki Hohle Fels Mağarası'nda bulunan ve yaklaşık 40.000 yıl önce bir akbabanın kanat kemiğinden oyulan flüt, bilinen en eski müzik aletlerinden biridir.

Arkeolog Nicholas Conard'ın yönettiği Tübingen Üniversitesi ekibi, flütü Almanya'nın güneybatısındaki Svabya Alpleri'nde parçalar hâlinde buldu ve 2009'da duyurdu. Yaklaşık 22 santimetre uzunluğundaki flüt, bir kızıl akbabanın kanat kemiğinden yapılmıştır; beş parmak deliği ve üflenen ucunda oyulmuş çentikler vardır. Avrupa'ya yerleşen ilk modern insanların bıraktığı Oriniyak katmanlarından çıkmıştır; en az 35.000, büyük olasılıkla 40.000'e yakın yaşındadır. Aynı mağarada ve yakınlardaki Geißenklösterle'de, içini oymak çok daha zor olan mamut fildişinden yapılmış flüt parçaları da bulundu. Hohle Fels, bilinen en eski insan heykelciklerinden biri olan fildişinden küçük bir kadın figürünü de vermiştir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Paleolithic flute
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