Palaeontology

How did musical instruments evolve ?

By T.K. Randall
October 24, 2012 ·  12 comments

Image Credit: sxc.hu It is believed that the concept of music developed from the rhythms of traditional poetry and that instruments would have been introduced to expand on this. It isn't clear exactly how long ago the first instruments were made because a lot of the earliest types would have been constructed from perishable materials meaning that no traces of them now remain.

Archaologists have found several objects that may have been prehistoric flutes dating back between 40,000 and 67,000 years ago, more concrete examples have been discovered dating back up to 9,000 years ago. Lyres and harps date back to at least 2,500 BC, while the Australian aborigines are known to have developed the didgeridoo as far back as 10,000 years ago.

Source: Live Science | Comments (12)

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