Archaeologists have excavated the earliest known musical instruments, prehistoric flutes, estimated to be about 43,000 years old in a cave located in southern Germany.
According to the report published in the Journal of Human Evolution
, the artifacts discovered from Geibenklosterle cave in southwestern Germany date back to the Stone Age.
The unearthed flutes, made from bird bone and mammoth ivory, are an early evidence for the occupation of Europe by modern humans, Homo sapiens, the experts suggest.
“The ‘Aurignacian’ artifacts found at the cave site have long been associated with modern humans, rather than our Neandertal cousins who populated Europe for hundreds of thousands of years before dying out around 30,000 years ago,” said carbon dating expert and lead author Thomas Higham of the United Kingdom's University of Oxford.
The found artifacts from Geibenklosterle cave lying in the former Danube Valley show that early modern humans have migrated into Germany around 42,000 years ago, moving up the Danube Vally.
The recently discovered items along with a 41,000-year-old tooth found in England, and similar artifacts found in Italy led the researchers to suggest new hypothesis on immigration to Europe.
They claim that early modern humans had moved into Europe around 45,000 years ago, during a cold spell in Europe's climate that lasted a few thousand years.