Editor's Summary
6 August 2009
Early music movement
The earliest modern human inhabitants of Europe already had a sophisticated musical tradition, according to a report this week describing a five-hole bird-bone flute from the cave of Hohle Fels in southern Germany that is around 35,000 years old. Other flutes of similar age are known, but none of this sophistication or completeness. The flute was found close to the mammoth-ivory Venus figurine discovered recently (Nature 459, 248–252; 2009) by the same research group.
Authors: Abstractions
doi:10.1038/7256666b
News and Views: Archaeology: The earliest musical tradition
Music is a ubiquitous element in our daily lives, and was probably just as important to our early ancestors. Fragments of ancient flutes reveal that music was well established in Europe by about 40,000 years ago.
Daniel S. Adler
doi:10.1038/460695a
Letter: New flutes document the earliest musical tradition in southwestern Germany
Nicholas J. Conard, Maria Malina & Susanne C. Münzel
doi:10.1038/nature08169
