Playing the right notes

The ages of the oldest known musical instruments in the world have been confirmed by scientists in a trans-world study that clears up earlier controversy. Two flutes had been excavated from a cave in an area of Germany known as the Swabian Jura, a mountain range in between the Danube and Neckar rivers, but earlier attempts to age them by radiocarbon dating were hampered by poor dating resolution and a spread of results that was too wide to be certain.

The new study, published in the Journal of Human Evolution, used accelerator mass spectrometer to date new samples of animal bones that were excavated from the same ground levels as the bones to declare that the flutes are 42,000-43,000 years old. The research team applied a special ultrafiltration pre-treatment to the samples to get better time resolution and suggested that the problems with the previous work were caused by inadequate decontamination of the collagen in the bone.

Fashioned from ivory and bird bone, the existence of the flutes at this time is highly significant, proving that early humans were in the area at this time and providing support to the idea that the Danube corridor was a major route for human movement.