Man’s oldest musical instrument discovered till date is Flute.
Ancient Flutes made from animal and bird bones during European Upper Paleolithic age have been discovered in Swabian Alb region of Germany.
These discoveries provide valuable evidence of prehistoric music during earliest period of modern human presence in Europe.
The oldest musical instrument discovered is Divje Babe flute, discovered in Slovenia in 1995, which is cave bear fermur and 43000+ years old.
Other old flutes were made from Vulture’s wing bone, two flutes made of mute swan bone and one made of woolly mammoth ivory.
These archaeological discoveries prove that early humans who occupied Europe had a fairly sophisticated culture, complete with alcohol, adornments, art objects and music that they developed there or even brought with them from Africa when they moved to the new continent 40,000 years ago.
Most of the ancient bone flutes were in between 2 to 9 inches in length.
The earliest solid evidence of musical instruments previously came from France and Austria, but dated much more recently than 30,000 years ago.
Geißenklösterle is one of several caves in this region that has produced important examples of personal ornaments, figurative art, mythical imagery and musical instruments.
This cave, which was occupied for millenniums, is one of the most wonderfully clear windows into the past, where conditions of preservation are just right.
The surfaces of the flute and the structure of the bone are in excellent condition and reveal many details about its manufacture.
The maker carved two deep, V-shaped notches into one end of the instrument, presumably to form the end into which the musician blew, and four fine lines near the finger holes.
The other end is broken off, but, based on the normal size of the vultures, the intact flute must be probably 2 to 3 inches longer.