i've complained before about the things i don't like about the "holocene epoch" calendar (even if i think that it's an overall moderate improvement on the christian year-numbering system but its also still just 6 christian epochs in a trenchcoat) but reading about the history of flutes really makes me double down on my biggest complaint, that it is often spoken about like 0HE is the start of "human history" when it's really really not (like, the americas were first populated by humans AT LEAST 30,000 years ago, possibly much longer)
anyways, the humans have found some of their old flutes from 53,000 years ago and its reasonable to believe that flutes are far far far older because im really guessing flutes weren't invented in paleolithic germany and radiated outwards from there. humans have been making musical instruments for SO LONG it HURTS MY BRAIN to think about those timespans. just think about how far back musical traditions of humans must go. they've been making music for SO LONG that human-ologists have no realistic way of putting a start date on them making music.