It doesn't look much for a major scientific discovery.  But then it has been buried in the earth for 9,000 years.  This piece of ancient bone drilled with holes is, in fact, the oldest working musical instrument ever found.  Our Stone Age ancestors were clearly entertaining themselves with musical compositions as far back as 7000 BC.  The flute, fashioned from the bone of a bird, has astounded archaeologists, who assumed that advanced tunes came much later in human history.  it is one of six perfectly preserved instruments buried alongside fragments of 30 more instruments in Jiahu in China's Henan Province. 

A Chinese musician has already tested the best preserved flute, which is about 12in long and similar to a child's recorder.  The results can be heard on the Internet.  The notes may sound a little wheezy after all this time, but experts who resurrected them, from New York's Brookhaven National Laboratory, were enchanted.  The instrument has seven main holes, plus a small hole near the bottom of the bone.

Tests revealed the extra hole was probably drilled to correct the off-pitch tone of the original bottom hole.  Two other seven-holed flutes were considered but tests produced cracking sounds and were promptly stopped.

Researchers, led by American chemist Garman Harbottle report in the journal Nature:  "The discovery of complete, playable multinote flutes at Jiahu presents us with a rare opportunity to hear and analyse actual musical sounds as they were produced nine millennia ago."

The flutes were in layers of soil which have been radiocarbon dated.  Earlier bone flutes have been found, but are so badly damaged they cannot be played.  The report adds:  "The carefully selected tone scale observed indicates the Neolithic musician of the seventh millennium BC could play not just single notes - but perhaps even music."