By Neo Joyce

All living creatures value music highly and the oldest known musical instrument found by archaeologists are 45,000 years old. Antique musical instrument collectors are watching the oldest musical wind instrument not made of bones with Argus eyes. No museum has an older instrument than the conch shell horn with near-perfect sound found in a cave in southern France in 1931. It was thought it was a drinking cup.  80 years later they discovered it is a musical instrument. It was played a long time ago by hunter-gatherers.

The ancient music instrument is around 12,20 inches long and 7 inches wide. It can play musical sounds.  It has clear notes that are close to C,D and C#

The conch was found to have been specially drilled to turn it into a musical instrument. Red pigment was found  inside the conch that matched the pigment on the walls of the cave where it was found.

Have you ever made  your own musical instrument? Comment below!

Listen to ancient sound of the conch shell:

BBC