People have discovered the enchanting sounds of music since ancient times. In ancient Greek myths, the art of playing various musical instruments was owned by both gods and mortals. Not a single feast was complete without flutes, tympans and flutes, which brightened up the celebrations of kings and ordinary peasants. But what is the oldest instrument on Earth?
The first musical instruments
Archaeologists were the first to tell about the existence of musical instruments in ancient times, who find pipes, tweeters and other items for playing music in almost all excavations. At the same time, similar finds were found in those territories where archaeologists managed to excavate the sites of primitive people.
Some of the musical instruments found by archaeologists date back to the Upper Paleolithic - in other words, these instruments appeared in 22-25 thousand years BC.
In addition, the ancient people were able not only to make musical instruments, but also to write music to them, writing down musical signs on clay tablets. The oldest musical notation to date was written in the 18th century BC. Archaeologists found it in the Sumerian city of Nippur, which they excavated, which was once located on the territory of modern Iraq. Scientists at the University of California, who deciphered the music tablet in 1974, stated that it contained the words and music of an Assyrian love ballad for string lyre.
The oldest musical instrument
In 2009, archaeologists discovered in one of the caves located in southwestern Germany the remains of an instrument that strongly resembles a modern flute. Analyzes and studies have shown that the age of the ancient flute is more than 35 thousand years. In the body of the flute, five perfectly round holes were made, which should be closed with fingers when playing, and at its ends there were two deep V-shaped cuts.
The length of the musical instrument was 21.8 centimeters, and the thickness was only 8 millimeters.
The material from which the flute was made turned out not to be wood, but bone from a bird's wing. Today this instrument is the oldest, but not the first in the history of archaeological finds - bone pipes, hollow animal horns, shell pipes, stone and wooden rattles, as well as drums made of animal skins have also been repeatedly found during excavations.
There are many legends about the origin of music. The ancient Greeks believed that the great gods of Olympus gave it to them, but modern scientists have conducted a number of ethnographic and archaeological studies. As a result of these studies, it was found that the first music appeared in primitive society and was used as a lullaby to lull children.
