Editing Flute (section)

==History==
{{Further|Paleolithic flutes|Prehistoric music}}

{{multiple image|caption_align=center|header_align=center
 | align = right
 | image2 = Gu Hongzhong's Night Revels, Detail 4.jpg
 | width2 = 250
 | alt2 = 12th-century art, Chinese women playing flutes
 | caption2 = Chinese women playing flutes, from the 12th-century [[Song dynasty]] remake of the ''Night Revels of Han Xizai'', originally by [[Gu Hongzhong]] (10th century)}}

A fragment of a juvenile [[cave bear]]'s [[femur]], with two to four holes, was found at [[Divje Babe flute|Divje Babe]] in [[Slovenia]] and dated to about 43,000 years ago. It may be the oldest flute discovered, but this has been disputed.<ref>{{cite web
 | author = Tenenbaum, David
 | date = June 2000
 | url = http://whyfiles.org/114music/4.html
 | title = Neanderthal jam
 | work = The Why Files
 | publisher = University of Wisconsin, Board of Regents
 | access-date = 14 March 2006
 | archive-date = 5 January 2001
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20010105225500/http://whyfiles.org/114music/4.html
 | url-status = dead
 }}</ref><ref>[http://cogweb.ucla.edu/ep/FluteDebate.html Flute History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901093813/http://cogweb.ucla.edu/ep/FluteDebate.html |date=1 September 2006 }}, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007.</ref> In 2008, a flute dated to at least 35,000 years ago was discovered in [[Hohle Fels]] cave near [[Ulm]], [[Germany]].<ref>Ghosh, Pallab. (25 June 2009) [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8117915.stm BBC: 'Oldest musical instrument' found] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101001180212/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8117915.stm |date=1 October 2010 }}. BBC News. Retrieved on 2013-08-10.</ref> It is a five-holed flute with a V-shaped mouthpiece and was made from a [[vulture]] wing bone. The discovery was published in the journal ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'', in August 2009.<ref>{{Cite journal
| doi = 10.1038/nature08169
|date=August 2009
|author1=Nicholas J. Conard |author2=Maria Malina |author3=Susanne C. Münzel | title = New Flutes Document the Earliest Musical Tradition in Southwestern Germany
| volume =   460
| pages =   737–40
| issn = 0028-0836
| pmid = 19553935
| journal = Nature
| issue = 7256
| bibcode=2009Natur.460..737C
|s2cid=4336590
}}</ref> This was the oldest confirmed musical instrument ever found,<ref name=BBC>{{cite news|title='Oldest musical instrument' found  |work=BBC News |date=25 June 2009 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8117915.stm |access-date=26 June 2009}}</ref> until a redating of flutes found in [[Geißenklösterle]] cave revealed them to be older, at 42,000 to 43,000 years.<ref name="jhevol"/>

The Hohle Fels flute is one of several found in the [[Hohle Fels|Hohle Fels cavern]] next to the [[Venus of Hohle Fels]] and a short distance from the oldest known human carving.<ref>{{cite web |title=Music for cavemen |publisher=[[MSNBC]] |date=24 June 2009 |url=http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/06/24/1976108.aspx |access-date=26 June 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090626032243/http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/06/24/1976108.aspx |archive-date=26 June 2009 |quote=Scientists say they've found what they consider to be the earliest handcrafted musical instrument in a cave in southwest Germany, less than a yard away from the oldest-known carving of a human. The flute fragments as well as the ivory figurine of a 'prehistoric Venus' date back more than 35,000 years, the researchers report&nbsp;... the real prize is a nearly complete flute hollowed out from the bone of a griffon vulture&nbsp;... found in the Hohle Fels cave, just 28 inches (70 centimeters) away from the spot where the prehistoric Venus&nbsp;... was found}}</ref> On announcing the discovery, scientists suggested that the "finds demonstrate the presence of a well-established musical tradition at the time when modern humans colonized Europe".<ref>{{cite news|title=Flutes Offer Clues to Stone-Age Music |newspaper=The New York Times |date=24 June 2009 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/science/25flute.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss |access-date=26 June 2009}}</ref> Scientists have also suggested that this flute's discovery may help to explain "the probable behavioural and cognitive gulf between" [[Neanderthals]] and [[Early modern humans|early modern human]].<ref name=BBC/>

[[File:A medieval bone flute dating 11th-13th century. (FindID 621082).jpg|thumb|200px|Bone flute made of a goat's tibia, 11th–13th century AD.]]
An 18.7&nbsp;cm flute with three holes, made from a [[mammoth]] tusk and dated to 30,000–37,000 years ago, was found in 2004 in the [[Geißenklösterle]] cave near Ulm, in the southern German [[Swabian Alb]].<ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/archeologists-discover-ice-age-dwellers-flute-1.518045| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090528034505/http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2004/12/30/flute-prehistoric041230.html| archive-date=28 May 2009| title=Archeologists discover ice age dwellers' flute  | work=CBC Arts  | publisher=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]]  | date=30 December 2004  | url-status=live| access-date=21 April 2009}}</ref> Two flutes made from [[swan]] bones were excavated a decade earlier from the same cave and dated to about 36,000 years ago.

A playable 9,000-year-old Chinese [[Gudi (instrument)|Gudi]] (literally, "bone flute") was excavated from a tomb in [[Jiahu]] along with 29 similar specimens.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/sci/tech/454594.stm The bone age flute] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115103938/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/sci/tech/454594.stm |date=15 January 2009 }}. BBC. 23 September 1999.</ref> They were made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes and each has five to eight holes.<ref>{{Cite journal
 |author      = Zhang, Juzhong
 |author2     = Xiao, Xinghua
 |author3     = Lee, Yun Kuen
 |date        = December 2004
 |title       = The early development of music. Analysis of the Jiahu bone flutes
 |journal     = Antiquity
 |volume      = 78
 |issue       = 302
 |pages       = 769–778
 |doi         = 10.1017/s0003598x00113432
 |url = http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/078/Ant0780769.htm
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20130603141434/http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/078/Ant0780769.htm
 |archive-date = 3 June 2013
|doi-access= free
 }}</ref>
The earliest extant Chinese transverse flute is a ''chi'' ([[wiktionary:篪|篪]]) flute discovered in the [[Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng]] at the [[Suizhou]] site, [[Hubei]] province, [[China]], dating from 433 BC, during the later [[Zhou dynasty]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Xun Xu and the Politics of Precision in Third-Century AD China|author=Goodman, Howard L. |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=2010|page=226|isbn=978-90-04-18337-7}}</ref> It is fashioned of [[lacquer]]ed bamboo with closed ends and has five stops on the flute's side instead of the top. ''[[Shi Jing]]'', traditionally said to have been compiled and edited by [[Confucius]], mentions chi flutes. 

The earliest written reference to a flute is from a [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]]-language [[cuneiform|cuneiform tablet]] dated to c. 2600–2700 BC.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://Flutopedia.com/dev_flutes_euroasia.htm#Early_Sumerian_Flutes |title=The Development of Flutes in Europe and Asia |author=Goss, Clint |year=2012 |work=Flutopedia |access-date=8 January 2012}}</ref>
Flutes are mentioned in a recently translated tablet of the [[Gilgamesh|Epic of Gilgamesh]], an epic poem whose development spanned the period from about 2100–600 BC.<ref name="Meso_Flutes">{{cite web |url=http://Flutopedia.com/mesopotamian_flutes.htm |title=Flutes of Gilgamesh and Ancient Mesopotamia|author=Goss, Clint |year=2012 |work=Flutopedia |access-date=8 January 2012}}</ref> A set of cuneiform tablets knows as the "''musical texts''" provide precise tuning instructions for seven scales of a stringed instrument (assumed to be a Babylonian [[lyre]]). One of those scales is named "''embūbum''", which is an [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] word for "flute".<ref name="Meso_Flutes" />

[[The Bible]], in [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] 4:21, cites [[Jubal (Bible)|Jubal]] as being the "father of all those who play the ''ugab'' and the ''[[kinnor]]''". The former Hebrew term is believed by some to refer to a wind instrument, or wind instruments in general, the latter to a stringed instrument, or stringed instruments in general. As such, Jubal is regarded in the Judeo-Christian tradition as the inventor of the flute (a word used in some translations of this biblical passage).<ref name="braun2004">Judith Cohen, "Review of 'Music in Ancient Israel/Palestine: Archaeological, Written, and Comparative Sources', by Joachim Braun". Min-Ad: Israel Studies in Musicology Online. Vol. 3. (2004). http://www.biu.ac.il/hu/mu/min-ad04/BraunRev-2.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919195604/https://www.biu.ac.il/hu/mu/min-ad04/BraunRev-2.pdf |date=19 September 2020 }}</ref> In other sections of the Bible (1 [[Samuel book|Samuel]] 10:5, 1 [[Books of Kings|Kings]] 1:40, [[Book of Isaiah|Isaiah]] 5:12 and 30:29, and [[Book of Jeremiah|Jeremiah]] 48:36) the flute is referred to as "''chalil''", from the root word for "hollow".<ref>Strong's Hebrew Concordance, "chalil". http://biblesuite.com/hebrew/2485.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130217034936/http://biblesuite.com/hebrew/2485.htm |date=17 February 2013 }}</ref> Archeological digs in the Holy Land have discovered flutes from the Bronze Age ({{Circa}} 4000–1200 BC) and the Iron Age (1200–586 BC), the latter era "witness[ing] the creation of the Israelite kingdom and its separation into the two kingdoms of Israel and Judea."<ref name="braun2004"/>

Some early flutes were made out of [[tibia]]s (shin bones). The flute has also always been an essential part of [[Indian culture]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=Students' Britannica India |last1=Hoiberg|first1=Dale|last2=Ramchandani |first2=Indu| year=2000 |publisher= Popular Prakashan |location=[[Mumbai]] |isbn=978-0-85229-760-5 |page=125 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AE_LIg9G5CgC}}</ref> and the cross flute believed by several accounts to originate in [[India]]<ref>{{Cite book|title=How to Play Flute & Shehnai|last=Chaturvedi|first=Mamta|year=2001 |publisher= Diamond Pocket Books (P) Ltd|location=[[New Delhi]] |isbn=978-81-288-1476-1|page=7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0rz8rvUOmSwC}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Music and Music-makers |last=Morse |first=Constance |year=1968 |publisher=Ayer Publishing |location=[[New Hampshire]] |isbn=978-0-8369-0724-7 |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XEXWVhtcuJ4C}}</ref> as Indian literature from 1500 BC has made vague references to the cross flute.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Choreographic Music for the Dance |last=Arvey |first=Verna |year=2007 |publisher=Read Country Books |location=[[London]] |isbn=978-1-4067-5847-4 |page=36 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=GOwFSQkpfNsC}}</ref>