
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Ancient history was not silent, so why is our study of it? The oldest-known musical instruments – bone flutes found in southern Germany – date back a little over 40,000 years. But how long humans have been making music in one form or another is a matter of great speculation. What did ‘music’ mean in the context of our Palaeolithic and Neolithic forebears? And, how did the human voice, archaeological artefacts and ancient sites themselves affect the sounds of their world.
By BBC World Service4.3
16071,607 ratings
Ancient history was not silent, so why is our study of it? The oldest-known musical instruments – bone flutes found in southern Germany – date back a little over 40,000 years. But how long humans have been making music in one form or another is a matter of great speculation. What did ‘music’ mean in the context of our Palaeolithic and Neolithic forebears? And, how did the human voice, archaeological artefacts and ancient sites themselves affect the sounds of their world.

7,800 Listeners

374 Listeners

1,067 Listeners

5,512 Listeners

964 Listeners

591 Listeners

1,866 Listeners

1,070 Listeners

357 Listeners

601 Listeners

976 Listeners

409 Listeners

413 Listeners

738 Listeners

840 Listeners

362 Listeners

1,037 Listeners

3,209 Listeners

1,070 Listeners

775 Listeners

1,041 Listeners

370 Listeners