,
Stuttgart In 2006, the Hohle Fels flute was discovered in the
Hohle Fels cave in Germany's
Swabian Alb. The flute is made from a vulture radius bone perforated with five finger holes, and dates to approximately 35,000 years ago. In 2012, a fresh high-resolution
carbon dating examination revealed an age of 42,000 to 43,000 years for the
Geissenklösterle cave flutes, suggesting that they could be older than the one from the Hohle Fels cave. The artifact known as the
Divje Babe flute, which was discovered in
Slovenia in 1995, has also been suggested as the oldest Paleolithic flute, though this claim has been disputed. The artifact is AMS-14C dated to 43100 ± 700 year old
cave bear femur pierced with spaced holes. Later dating using the more powerful ESR method has shown that the layer containing the flute is outside the dating range of the AMS-14C method and that the original dating of samples from this layer was incorrect. According to ESR dating, the age of the bone is now estimated at 50,000 to 60,000 years BP. Its discoverer suggested the holes were
manmade and that there may have been four originally before the item was damaged. However, other scientists have argued that the holes were chewed by an animal. ==See also==