"Some of the world's first musicians may have been flautists. Archaeologists reanalyzing artifacts from a cave in southern Germany have determined that two prehistoric flutes — one fashioned from bird bone, the other mammoth ivory — are somewhere between 42,000 and 43,000 years old. (...) "Modern humans during [this] period were in central Europe at least 2,000-3,000 years before this climatic deterioration, when huge icebergs calved from ice sheets in the northern Atlantic and temperatures plummeted," explains Higham." http://io9.com/5913322... "The bone flutes push back the date researchers think human creativity evolved. (...) The flutes are the earliest record of technological and artistic innovations that are characteristic of the Aurignacian period. This culture also created the oldest known example of art meant to represent a person, found in the same cave system in 2008 (that statue seems to be about 35,000 years old). The musical instruments indicate that these early humans were sharing songs and showing artistic creativity even earlier than previously thought." http://www.mnn.com/lifesty... - Amira