Very cool discovery in Ireland…4000 year-old wooden flutes/pipes (no finger holes) that may be the oldest wooden instruments ever found:
Now that’s some aged wood!
That is really, really cool!
Redwolf
That is pretty amazing. The article didn’t mention how they determined the pipes were really musical instruments and not something else. The fact that some of them can be used to play certain notes might just be a coincidence. I can just picture some ancient ghost laughing about how these people think pieces of their ancient bong are musical instruments! 
Bob
This must be Piltdown Pipes I think.
Those pipes are more in tune than ther average whistle by the sound of it.
I was thinking that they could be endblown overtone flutes, the kind that are still played in Scandinavia.
There’s more stuff in the Uilean Pipes forum. Apparently the pipes were connected to some kind of frame. I’m thinking it’s some kind of organ or calliope.
I like the part that starts off: “Archaeologists are dancing with delight after discovering a set of musical pipes believed to have been used 4,000 years ago by pre-historic man in Ireland …”
I wonder why they dont’t think that they were used by modern man 4,000 years ago. :roll:
Because no modern people were alive 4000 years ago. “Prehistoric” refers to the period before written records, which certainly encompasses 4000 years ago in Ireland (it’s different in different places). It doesn’t refer to a species or subspecies of people, just whether any records from the time have survived to now.
Steven
Yeah, like high schools in the US of 2004… 
Since each tube plays a single note and apparently cannot be modulated, I’m guessing they’re some sort of ancient panpipes. It would have helped if someone would have thought to include a photo.
More like a calliope or organ. The pipes were connected to a frame and apparently fed by a bellows or bag.
I think Darwin may have meant “modern” in the paleologic sense.
Whoops, not what I expected in this thread: From the title I thought maybe someone had finally found that Copeland whistle you’ve been neglecting Kev. My bad.
Loren
There’s a news clip here >> RTE of an interview with Bernice Molloy, site director for the Dublin-based archaeological consultancy Margaret Gowen.
Ouch!!! Your thinly veiled atttempts to shame me into parting with my Copland will not succeed!!!
No, seriously, I still play it, uh, every now and then…actually I usually play at least one tune on whistle at each session, though the Dixon is proving to be a lot of fun…I wasnt expecting to be able to play it so quickly, but yeah, its gonna take a while to build up some chops.
Well, actually, I was just making fun of them specifying “prehistoric”, because it seemed a bit redundant. What other kind of people lived in Ireland 4,000 years ago?
I was also tempted to say: “I wonder why they didn’t think they were used by prehistoric cows.” Or, if we say “prehistoric man”, shouldn’t we say “prehistoric cow”? Now that I think about it, “prehistoric man” does have a bit of a paleological tone to it.
sigh
Sometimes I’m just too literal-minded.
No toneholes! Well this obvious, they have dug up a whistle makers junkpile.
I could imagine some guy standing in front of a treadle lathe or some other ancient piece of equipment.
Now if they only find the equipment that the conical bore is cut on, that would amazing. I can’t imagine how they would cut a conical bore 4000 years ago.
I wonder if this set of pipes will show up on eBay anytime soon