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Prehistoric Music Origins and Instruments

The document discusses the origins of music and the earliest known musical instruments. It describes how between 60,000-30,000 years ago, ancient humans began creating art and ceremonially burying their dead, suggesting the emergence of music. Evolutionary scientists believe early music helped human species survive by coordinating emotions and motivating group cooperation. The oldest known musical instrument is the Divje Babe flute from Slovenia, dated 60,000-43,000 years old, though some dispute it was a flute. Another discovery was a 43,000 year old bone flute in Germany, demonstrating an early musical tradition in modern humans colonizing Europe. While some reject the Divje Babe flute, its age coincides with Ne

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Edy Valadez
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117 views1 page

Prehistoric Music Origins and Instruments

The document discusses the origins of music and the earliest known musical instruments. It describes how between 60,000-30,000 years ago, ancient humans began creating art and ceremonially burying their dead, suggesting the emergence of music. Evolutionary scientists believe early music helped human species survive by coordinating emotions and motivating group cooperation. The oldest known musical instrument is the Divje Babe flute from Slovenia, dated 60,000-43,000 years old, though some dispute it was a flute. Another discovery was a 43,000 year old bone flute in Germany, demonstrating an early musical tradition in modern humans colonizing Europe. While some reject the Divje Babe flute, its age coincides with Ne

Uploaded by

Edy Valadez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

The Origin of Music - Prehistoric Music

The origin of music itself is very difficult to determine because in all probability, it is likely to have
begun with singing and clapping or beating the hands on different surfaces, for which there is no of
course no archaeological record.

However, between at least 60,000 and 30,000 years ago, ancient humans experienced a type of
‘cultural explosion’ – they started creating art in the form of paintings on cave walls, jewelry and
ornaments, and to bury their dead ceremonially. If we assume that these new forms of behavior
reflect the emergence of intentionality, then music as we know it must also have emerged at least
during this period.

Evolutionary scientists believe that a musical culture would have helped prehistoric human species
to survive because the music coordinates emotions, helps important messages to be communicated,
motivates people to identify with a group, and motivates individuals to support other group
members.

Oldest musical instrument

The oldest musical instrument ever discovered is believed to be the Divje Babe flute, discovered in
a cave in Slovenia in 1995, though this has been disputed. The item is a fragment of the femur of a
cave bear, which has been dated at 60,000-43,000 years old, which had been pierced with spaced
holes. Scientists who could not accept the possibility that Neanderthals were playing music rejected
the claim and said that the perfectly spaced and neatly carved holes are in fact the result of the bone
fragment having been chewed by an animal. However, a general consensus that the Divje Babe flute
is actually a musical instrument has been growing as the view of the Neanderthals from subhuman
brutes to more sophisticated humans is changing.

In 2008, another discovery was made – a bone flute in the Hohle Fels cave near Ulm in Germany
dating back 43,000 years. The five-holed flute has a V-shaped mouthpiece and is made from a
vulture wing bone. It was one of several similar instruments found in the area, with others dating
back to 35,000 years ago and made from mammoth ivory. The mammoth-ivory flutes would have
been especially challenging to make. Using only stone tools, the flute maker would have had to split
a section of curved ivory along its natural grain. The two halves would then have been hollowed out,
carved, and fitted together with an airtight seal.

The cave in southern Germany contains early evidence for the occupation of Europe by Homo
sapiens and on announcing the discovery, scientists suggested that the "finds demonstrate the
presence of a well-established musical tradition at the time when modern humans colonized
Europe". They suggested that music may have helped to maintain bonds between larger groups of
humans, and that this may have helped the species to expand both in numbers and in geographical
range.

Those who have rejected the finding of the Divje Babe flute have claimed that music played a role
in the maintenance of larger social networks which may have given modern humans the edge over
the Neanderthals. However, looking at the images of the Dibje Babe flute, which dates back to the
time of the Neanderthals, it seems quite ridiculous to assume that it was made by the tooth holes
of carnivores.

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