NPR: world's oldest known musical instruments

This might interest you, at least if you're into *very* early music. It's from yesterday's "All things Considered" on National Public Radio:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105823127&sc=fb&cc=fp

Four flutes, made of vulture bone and mammoth tusks dated to around 40,000 BP, were recently discovered in caves in southwestern Germany. Audio includes sound from a replica of these instruments. The ivory flute in particular is pretty advanced for something made by, well, cavemen.

What wasn't mentioned was how these flutes might have been tuned, or whether they were made by humans like us living today, or the Neanderthals, who became extinct only ten thousand years later. Also, as a commenter stated, fragments of bone flutes of similar age have previously been found, such as those found in Slovenia in 1997 and reported in National Geographic.

~D.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Danny Wier" <dawiertx@...> wrote:
>
> What wasn't mentioned was how these flutes might have been tuned, or
> whether they were made by humans like us living today, or the
> Neanderthals, who became extinct only ten thousand years later....

Here some links,
that might address yours quest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divje_Babe_flute#Neanderthal_flute
"Whether it is actually a flute created by Neanderthals
is a subject of debate..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_music#Flutes
"....is a matter of ongoing debate.
The earliest unambiguously musical bone pipe is from Geissenklösterle in Germany, dates to about 36,000 BP and is associated with modern humans."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohle_Fels_flute#Hohle_Fels_flute
"The Hohle Fels flute is the oldest musical instrument ever discovered. It is at least 35,000 years old,
and was discovered at the Hohle Fels Cave
in what is now southwestern Germany.
The flute is made of bone and has five holes,
and is the earliest evidence
of humans being engaged in musical culture..."

Technical inquiry:
Does anybody in that group here know the exact
specification of the five tone-holes as distances
or even better preferable in absolute pitches?

bye
A.S.