An ancient flute has been unearthed in Germany, revealing that musical traditions began earlier than previously thought.

The bone instrument, which is almost completely intact, has been dated to around 33,000BC — more than 5,000 years older than the earliest musical instruments on record.

Fragments of three ivory flutes were discovered at the same site, the Hohle Fels cave, near the city of Ulm.

The caves would have been occupied by Stone Age hunter-gatherers who subsisted on a diet of horse and reindeer meats, fruits and berries.

The flute, which is carved from the wing bone of a vulture, is around 20cm in length and 1cm in diameter. It has five finger holes and features V-shaped carved notches that would have acted as the mouthpiece.

The flute would have had a similar, possibly greater, range of notes to the modern flute, according to scientists writing today in the journal Nature. It would been held vertically, like a modern recorder, but instead of blowing directly into it, the musician would have blown obliquely across the open top of the instrument.

“It would have been something like playing a beer bottle,” said Nicholas Conard, an archaeologist at the University of Tübingen, who led the study.

A reconstruction of the flute revealed that its first three notes correspond roughly to the opening notes of Star Spangled Banner.

Only small fragments of the three ivory instruments were recovered, but their discovery is significant because the technology required to make ivory flutes is much more advanced. The flutes would have been constructed in two halves, which were whittled down, polished and then joined together with an airtight seal.

Cave drawings and figurines, dated from around the same period, had been found previously at the site. The latest discovery suggests that music as well as visual art was an important part of cultural life for Palaeolithic tribes.

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