Newly Discovered Ancient Musical Instruments

September 3, 2012 - Heads up non-music makers, you may become extinct!

An article published in May by the Journal of Human Evolution, and reported in Life Science stated, "Early modern humans could have spent their evenings sitting around the fire, playing bone flutes and singing songs 40,000 years ago, newly discovered ancient musical instruments indicate. The bone flutes push back the date researchers think human creativity evolved."

The document also stated that the "flutes are the earliest record of technological and artistic innovations that are characteristic of the Aurignacian period. . . . these musical instruments indicate that these early humans were sharing songs and showing artistic creativity even earlier than previously thought."

It concluded, "This site was inhabited by modern humans, . . .but it's possible that Neanderthals were also in the area at the same time, though they haven't been able to find evidence of any cultural contact or interbreeding between the two groups in this part of Europe."

Here's the punch line.

The August issue of Music Trades Magazine quoted the article and added, ". . . some researchers have argued that music may have been one of a suite of behaviors displayed by our species that helped give them an edge over the Neanderthals, who went extinct in most parts of Europe 30,000 years ago."

If you're a "non-music maker", there's still hope. You don't have to be like the Neanderthals and become extinct, just sign up for music lessons at Andy's - and keep your gene pool intact!