(Pardon me if this has already been mentioned. A quick C&F search turned up nothing.)
[u]35,000-year-old German flutes display excellent kraftwerk[/u]
They’ve been turning up these flutes for several years now at the Tübingen-run dig site. I guess the latest article prompted this spate of news. This does seem like a better candidate for oldest flute than the still-controversial Slovenian “[u]Neanderthal flute[/u]”.
German flutes display excellent kraftwerk
Man, that’s a really bad attempt at a headline. Kraftwerk means “power station” in German, like your local nuke plant. I guess craftsmanship would be something like Handwerkskunst. The guy is obviously proud that he actually knows the name of a German band!
Not to knock the old German flutes, but I’d still stick with a modern maker.
I guess this one is a Nach Caveman. 
Exactly. I had a good laugh about the headline, though. 
NYTimes has an article about it too:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/science/25flute.html
This will spawn interest in the next big whistle and flute material. Gnawed on chicken bones from our garbage.
Therefore, it is, by definition a whistle, right?
Looks more like an end-blown notch flute than a fipple flute (i.e., whistle).
It’s probably broke off at one of the toneholes.
Quite a narrow bore. Given that, my opinion is that it probably had some form of reed on it.
If you look at any fipple flute, the fingerholes tend to be in the bottom half of the tube, mostly. If you look at reed pipes, both double reeds and single reeds, they tend to have the fingerholes distributed more-or-less evenly through the lenght of the pipe. The reasons have to do with very complicated acoustical physics, so I’m not going to go into that. If you look at the photo, the fingerholes are more-or-less evenly distributed. Ergo=reed pipe. It simply would not function very well as a flue, or notched , or cross-blown pipe, at least in the upper reaches. (unless more than half of the lenght has broken off, which is impossible, judging from the remaining part.)
That’s how we do it, but I don’t think that’s how it has to be done. For example, I’ve seen a Chinese flute in the form of a very short tube with an embouchure hole somewhere near the middle. You play it by covering the two ends with a finger of each hand. It only does a handful of notes (a mix of closed and open at each end) but can produce quite pretty music. I could imagine a flute with widely spaced holes like this operating in a similar manner. Especially being so thinly bored, you might be able to fill in some notes by use of harmonics.
Shouldn’t be hard to knock one up and try it. Anyone got a spare Ibis?
Terry
Well, I do have a couple of spare albatross bones, but they’re earmarked for a set of double (reed)pipes.
I know of these other approaches to music, too. In particular, the South and Central American pre-Columbian flutes have had some serious analyses done, and have been found to have drastically different approaches to the very idea of just what music is, from the familiar, boring diatonic-chromatic-pentatonic ideas. All the same, the middle hole being the blowhole is, while technically feasable, in my opinion is too sophisticated a concept for the age. I sorta believe that they started simple, then got onto some new ideas, experimented with them,(that’s where complex comes into it, like blowing towards both ends), then discarded the options that were too complex or too obscure, and ended up with good old boring etc etc.
Terry’s right that there’s hardly any point speculating on analysis of modern tone hole spacing and bore. At 35,000 years old it’s unlikely to be octotonic anyway (i.e. there are other examples of ditonic, tritonic, tetratonic scales etc). If you read the article they have a pretty much complete reconstruction so there isn’t a huge amount of guessing to do.
8mm bore
22cm long (adding a bit at the bottom based on average vulture’s arm length)
5 tone holes, based on precise measurement marks (the break is at the 5th hole)
Two deep, V-shaped notches were also carved into one end, which was presumably where its maker blew into… but he thinks that blowing into the instrument (without any additional mouthpiece) would have been enough.
I guess either reed or end blown whistle is possible. The V-shaped notches (if not completely covered by the lips) would allow for a bladed whistle arrangement. The fact there are two on the same end might suggest a reed or other fitting, but I’m no archaeologist so just idle speculation.
Who’s first up with their 8mm PVC replica sound posting? (guess this should be on the whistle thread)
What this discovery means:
- For 35,000 years flute players have been arguing about what material makes the best flute. For instance, translated from the old old German text found with the flute by some neolithic named “Rocky” Stro, possibly the one who played it:
“Our local vultures probably make the best flutes. We’ve tried flutes made from Buzzards down near Lascaux south of here and the bones just don’t cut it. The climate there, lacking the glacial ice everywhere, is just too warm and the buzzard bones cook down too quickly. They are good, however, in Bechamel sauce.”
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Flute making doesn’t contribute much to the decline of species. Notice that there are vultures everywhere.
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This oldest flute should be made to play again, and then used as The pitch standard. Everything made afterwards should be relabeled H.P. or L.P. for High Pitch or Low Pitch.
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Is that old flute still under warranty? What should it be oiled with?
Casey
Great post.
I figger this instrument is in high “G” (1567.98hz) with its 1/2 wavelength of 8.6 inches. I don’t know where the figure 8mm came from, but if the bore is this size, then the bore/length ratio is 1/30. This is not much different than any modern flute bore. I vote for “near pentatonic” as a scale because of even hole placement. I believe Daniel is correct about the end broken at the lower tonehole, making this a 5 hole flute. The highest tonehole may have been pinched open as a “speaker hole” for sounding the upper registers. If you wanted to stretch your imagination, you could plug the top end and use the top tonehole as a cross embouchure (???) Blasphemy!!!
(sidebar: 13526 / 1567.98 = 8.626 inches. 8.626 / 30 = 0.287 [almost 8mm])
A story so important The Onion mentioned it.