PREHISTORIC EUROPEAN AND

EAST ASIAN FLUTES

VICTOR H. MAIR

Hearing a Flute on a Spring Night in Luo4ya2ng1 City

L B (701-762)
From whose jade flute do these darkling sounds waft,
Spreading with the spring wind to fill the city of Luyng?
Among the tunes tonight is heard that of "Breaking Willow Wands" 2
In whom would it not stir memories of home?

The great city in He2n a2n Province that served as the capital of several ancient dynasties.
During the Ha4n period, there was a bridge called Ba4 Qia2o ('Hegemon Bridge') in the
capital city of Cha2ng'a1n. The Ha4n people had a custom of breaking off a willow wand and
giving it to travelers who were about to cross over the bridge. This practice subsequently
came to symbolize parting from friends and loved ones. Later a tune entitled Zhe2 ya2ngliu3
(Breaking the Willow) often shortened just to Zhe2 liu3 (Breaking Willow) was
composed to convey the sentiments of such occasions. Mention of this tune in poetry
constitutes an allusion to the sorrow felt at parting or missing a distant friend.
1
2

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VICTOR H. MAIR

The world's first flutes which are also the world's first known musical
instruments fashioned and played by man were created in Europe, and
were associated with a quantum leap in the overall cognitive, aesthetic, and
symbolic abilities of modern human beings during the Upper Paleolithic.
The cave art and plastic art from this period and region are rightly celebrated
as constituting a remarkable advance in human civilization, and it is possible
that modern linguistic capability arose at around the same time, perhaps for
similar reasons (the expansion and increased neural complexity of the human
brain), although the hominid predecessors of Homo sapiens sapiens
admittedly also possessed slowly increasing capacity to represent, express,
and communicate.
In November 2004, archaeologists at the University of Tbingen
announced the discovery of a flute made of ivory from a woolly mammoth's
tusk. The flute was recovered from a mountain cave (Geienklsterle) in
southwestern Germany near the small city of Ulm, which belongs to the state
(Land) of Baden-Wrttemberg. Ulm is situated on the left bank of the
Danube at its confluence with the Iller and the Blau, opposite the Bavarian
town of Neu Ulm. Not far from the border with Switzerland and Austria,
Ulm lies at the heart of Europe.
The Ulm ivory flute is 18.7 centimeters long and is dated to
approximately 35,000 years ago. It has three finger holes and would have
been capable of playing fairly complex melodies. The discovery of this ivory
flute is no fluke, since two other flutes made from swan bones had been
recovered from the same site a decade earlier. These are by far the oldest
musical instruments ever found.3 Although considerable skill was needed to
3

I do not take into account the perforated bone that was dug up from the cave at Divje Babe
(Idrijca Valley, Western Slovenia) by Ivan Turk of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences) in
1995. It was found in the fifth Mousterian level (Middle Paleolithic) and is estimated to be
about 45,000 years old (Lau et al. 1997). After it was found, this object was widely promoted
as the world's first flute by those who believe that the Neanderthals who allegedly made it
possessed advanced intellectual and artistic capabilities. The 'flute' consists of a hollow bear
femur with four holes, two of which are intact and two of which are incomplete, though all
four are more or less in straight alignment and have approximately equal diameters. The bone
is broken and cannot serve as a musical instrument, but can be blown in such a manner as to
produce a 'musical' sound. However, at the time when the perforations were made in this
fragmentary bear femur, neither the technology for working bones nor the requisite artistic
behavior existed, whereas ten thousand years later, at the time of the Ulm flutes, there can be
no doubt whatsoever that modern humans had not only abruptly come to possess advanced
symbolic and aesthetic capabilities, but also commanded the technical skills in boneworking
required to make their flutes and carve their sculpture, for which there is an abundance of
indisputable evidence.
For a meticulous, thorough discrediting of the Divje Babe perforated bone as a flute, see
d'Errico et al. (2003:36-39 especially), who point out, among other drawbacks, that the
perforations must have been caused by a carnivore, most likely a cave bear (the bone in
question is itself the femur of a juvenile cave bear). Their debunking of the Divje Babe 'flute'
is all the more damning, inasmuch as d'Errico and colleagues are avid proponents of the

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create the swan bone flutes, in comparison with the ivory flute they would
have been relatively easy to make because bird bones are more or less
hollow to begin with. Fashioning a flute from solid ivory would have
required much more sophistication. Mammoth ivory was the highest quality
material then available, but it was also dense, durable, and hard, hence
difficult to carve. To make a flute from the ivory of a mammoth tusk would
have demanded intense determination, advanced technical skills and the
tools to match them, and a clear vision of the final instrument that was
desired. It would have been necessary to split the mammoth tusk in two, then
painstakingly hollow out the two halves. After that, the two sides of the flute
would have had to be bound together and glued securely along a perfectly
airtight seam.
Friedrich Seeberger, an expert on prehistoric music and one of the
authors of the report on the ivory flute, has made a replica from elder wood.
The tones he has produced on it seem to adhere to a pentatonic scale (which
now is predominant in Asia), rather than the diatonic scale of classical Greek
theory (though the pentatonic scale may also have been used in antiquity to
tune the Greek kithara [lyre], and some early Gregorian chant incorporated
pentatonic melodies).
Also from the Geienklsterle Cave came a tiny flute, just 126.5
millimeters long, with three finger holes and made from a single wing bone
of a whooper swan. Bird bones lend themselves naturally for use as wind
instruments, both because they are strong and because (as mentioned above)
they are essentially hollow. Seeberger reconstructed the swan bone flute
using contemporary tools such as flint saws and drills to work new bones.
The replica is capable of producing seven fine, modulated tones (four base
and three upper), again forming part of a pentatonic scale. The Ulm bird
bone flute was no simple whistle or noisemaker, but judging from the
music that Seeberger was able to coax out of his replica would have been
capable of generating expressive melodies.
It is significant that the first sculptures made by humans a finely carved
waterfowl and imaginative half-cat half-human and semi-leonine figures, all
Neanderthals as being capable of far more than mere brute, animalistic behavior. They
particularly disagree with "the hypothesis of a symbolic revolution coinciding with the arrival
of anatomically modern humans in Europe some 40,000 years ago [...]." Nevertheless, they
agree that "No firm evidence of conscious symbolic storage and musical traditions are found
before the Upper Paleolithic." Still, they insist that "[] the oldest known European objects
that testify to these practices already show a high degree of complexity and geographic
variability suggestive of possible earlier, and still unrecorded, phases of development."
(2003:2 [emphasis added]). Their argument, however, is unconvincing because it is ex
silentio. They simply fail to take into account the fact, based on a massive amount of
archaeological and artistic evidence, that there was indeed a cognitive, esthetic, and symbolicexpressive revolution in Europe during the Upper Paleolithic, and that this revolution did
indeed coincide with the appearance of anatomically modern humans there.

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VICTOR H. MAIR

from mammoth ivory were found in the same complex of caves at Ulm.
(Mitsui 2005: 135-137; figs. 3-4, 3-5, and 3-7) Other nearby sites have also
yielded small ivory figurines, which further underscore the fact that the local
inhabitants of the region were adept artisans. Clearly this was an important
center for the early development of civilization more than 25,000 years
before the rise of literate civilization in the
Middle East.
Almost completely overlooked in all the
excitement over the flutes from the
Geienklsterle cave and the Jia3hu2 site (see
below) is a very impressive collection of
Upper Paleolithic flutes (or pipes) from
Isturitz in southwestern France. Consisting of
more than twenty separate specimens, the
Isturitz flutes range widely in date from the
Aurignacian to the Magdalenian (between ca.
20,000 and 35,000 years ago). Two of the
most complete pipes are from the Gravettian
levels of the cave, ca. 25,000 years ago. They
are extremely well made from vulture ulnae,
bear finely etched identifying or notational
marks, and display evidence of having been
extensively used.
It is surprising that another group of
similar prehistoric flutes has been found at
the opposite end of the Eurasian
supercontinent
in
the
East
Asian
Fig. 1: Flute made from the
radius of a swan from the
Heartland (EAH).
Aurignacian level of
These are the wellGeienklsterle (d'Errico
known
Neolithic
et. al. 2003:41, fig. 11b).
flutes from the Jia3hu2
archeological site in He2n a2n. Jia3hu2 is located in Wu3ya2ng County
("Wu3ya2ng Depression") of central He2na2n Province on the eastern slope of
Mt. Fu2niu2 at the southwestern edge of the North China Plain. To the
south is the flood plain of the Ni River and to the north is the Sha1 River
. This area, strategically located in the Central Yellow River Valley, was
once the estate of Fa2n Kua4i (d. 189 B.C.), brother-in-law of the first
emperor of the Hn Dynasty, Liu2 Ba1ng . It later became the estate of
Sma3 Y (178-251), the prime minister of the Ca2o We4i Dynasty
during the Three Kingdoms period.

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213

The Jia3hu2 archaeological site lies on the eastern side of Jia3hu2 Village,
twenty-two kilometers north of the Wu3y a2ng County seat. Its coordinates are
113o41'E X 33o37'N and its altitude is a mere 68 meters above sea level. The
site was first identified in 1962 by Zhu1 Zh , director of the Wu3ya2ng
County Museum. Although the Jia3hu2 site was soon recognized as preYa3ngsha2o , its true significance was not realized until after the
discovery of the Pe2ilga1ng Culture (5500-4900 B.C.) in the late
seventies. After that, between 1982 and 1987, there were six seasons of
excavation at Jia3hu2, which uncovered 2,400 m2 of occupation, 40 house
foundations, 300 storage pits, 10 pottery kilns, and 300 burials. Nineteen
C14 dates taken from objects unearthed at the site range from 8300 to 7400
BP, which may be dendrochronologically calibrated to 9000-7800 BP.
The Jia3hu2 site has yielded several thousands of artifacts made of pottery,
stone, and bone. Among all of the artifacts that have been recovered from
Jia3hu2, however, those which have garnered the most attention on an
international scale are 23 bone flutes.4 These may be divided into three
groups:
(1) early (c. 7000-6000 B.C.), two flutes with five or six holes that can produce
four- and five-note scales
(2) middle (c. 6600-6200 B.C.), fourteen flutes with seven holes that can produce
six- and seven-note scales
(3) late (c. 6200-5800 B.C.), seven flutes with seven or eight holes (or
fragmentary) that can produce seven-note or other scales

Six of the flutes, which are exquisitely fashioned, are completely (or
essentially) intact, while the remainder are fragmentary. The Jia3hu2 flutes are
made from the hollow bone of a bird, the red-crowned crane (Grus
japonensis Millen). These flutes have been prominently publicized (e.g.,
Zhang, et al. 1999), and deservedly so, because they represent a high level of
musical culture in the EAH. (Henan 1999: see vol. 2, ch. 9:992-1020 for the
full archeological and musicological report on the Jia3h u2 flutes in Chinese; p.
1038 [of 1034-1038] for a brief English summary).

Photographs of the Jia3hu2 flutes are to be found in Wu3ya2ng Jia3hu2 (Henan 1999), color plates
39-40 and black-and-white photograph 181.
4

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VICTOR H. MAIR

A magnified view of the circular wall of one of the finger holes of a

seven-holed flute from Jia3hu2 (M344: 5; Henan 1999:182.1) reveals striking
similarities to the beveling found in the holes of the Ulm flutes. Side by side
photographs of bone flutes from Aurignacian and Gravettian levels in the
Geienklsterle Cave and from Isturitz reveal
virtually identical beveling around the finger
holes which indicates that they must have been
part of the same early tradition of instrument
production. 5 (d'Errico et al. 2003: Fig. 11;
Conrad et al. 2004: Abb. 2, 6, 8, 11) More
remarkable, however, is a close-up of the finger
holes of one of the seven-holed Jia3hu2 flutes
(M78: 1; Henan 1999:182.2) which displays
comparable alignment marks as were made on
European flutes from the Upper Paleolithic
dating roughly ten to twenty-five thousand years
earlier. These marks 6 both in the case of the
Upper Paleolithic flutes from Europe and in the
case of the Neolithic flutes from the EAH
display the form of an "o" with single vertical
lines projecting upward and downward from the
top and the bottom. Another way to describe the
type of mark under
Fig.2: Close-up of a
discussion is that it is
seven-holed flute made
like the Greek letter
from the ulna of a redcrowned crane; from the
phi
(lower
case,
Neolithic site at Jia3hu2,
though straight up and
He2na2n (Henan 1999:
down and not tilted
plate 182.2).
slightly to the right),
but with the middle segment of the vertical line
removed by the carving of the hole, which forms
the circular portion of the letter. Evidently, the
flute-maker first carefully marked the placement
of the holes with a vertical line and then drilled
through the bone at the center of the line, leaving
its two ends projecting outward from the top and
5

D'Errico et al. (2003:46 passim) describe more than half-a-dozen other remarkable
similarities between the Geienklsterle and Isturitz Gravettian flutes.
6
Not evident on all of the holes of all the flutes under discussion. The broader beveling
around the holes of the European Upper Paleolithic flutes in comparison with the Neolithic
East Asian flutes tends to remove most of the vertical projecting marks around the circles, but
some traces still remain. Furthermore, the spacing marks on the surface between holes are
clearly evident on several of the European flutes.

PREHISTORIC EUROPEAN AND EAST A SIAN FLUTES

215

bottom edges of the hole. It is astonishing that flute-makers separated at the

two ends of Eurasia and by thousands of years would have employed the
identical technique to determine where the holes of their flutes should be
placed. That they also used the ulnae or radii of large birds (swans and
vultures) to make their flutes bespeaks a common heritage.
Aside from the Ulm flutes and Jia3hu2 flutes, "Other early flute finds
include 5,000-year-old instruments from Egypt, with murals depicting them
being played." (Brazil 2005) Egypt, along with Sumeria, is usually thought
of as constituting the beginning of civilization, but the flutes from the
Middle East seem positively youthful in comparison with the hoary
prehistoricity of the instruments from Ulm and Jia3hu2.

A Lia2ngzho1u Lyric7
Wa2ng Zhhua4n (688-742)
The Yellow River stretches far up to the white clouds,
A solitary slip of a town nestles beneath towering mountains;
To what avail does the frontier herdsman's flute
wail the "Willow Song"?
Spring winds will never blow beyond the Jade Gate Pass.8

Lia2ngzho1u was located at modern Wu3we1i in the Ga1nsu4 Corridor. The title of this
poem is drawn from the repertoire of the Han Music Bureau.
8
The Jade Gate Pass lies beyond Du1nhua2ng , in Ga1nsu4 Province. At the edge of a vast
desert region stretching westward, this was the gateway to the desolation of Central Asia.
7

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VICTOR H. MAIR

Acknowledgements
I wish to express my gratitude to Harold L. Dibble (personal communication
of November 22, 2005) for expert information concerning the absence of
bone working before the Upper Paleolithic and modern Homo sapiens (c.
40,000 years ago). I would also like to thank Liqing Zhang for reciting the
original Chinese of the two poems that appear before the abstract, poems
which she memorized five decades ago and which she offers to the honoree
of this volume as a gentle suggestion to curb his phenomenal Wanderlust, so
as to preserve his health and energy for the greater good of Sinology and the
humanistic sciences in general.

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