Flutes made from bones — dating back 12,000 years — may have helped hunters lure prey

Paleolithic people worked their fingers to the bone crafting and practicing small flutes made from bird skeletons.

The tiny instruments, fashioned around 12,000 years ago, may have helped hunters mimic animal sounds, according to a study published on June 9 in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

Seven waterfowl wing bones with small holes carved into them were discovered in northern Israel’s Hula Valley, researchers said. The “meticulously made” perforations would have functioned as finger holes and mouthpieces.

“The mastery of these instruments must have required a certain period of training and a level of dexterity,” researchers said. “The short distances between the finger-holes of certain aerophones also requires a certain agility.”

The international team of researchers created replicas from mallard bones to investigate the purpose of the ancient instruments.

When they played the experimental replicas, which measured no more than a few inches in length, researchers found they made sounds that resembled falcon calls.

Researchers hypothesized that the flutes were likely used to mimic bird calls — specifically the high-pitched shrieks of the sparrowhawk and the common kestrel.

Hunters might have played the flutes to lure birds to a close enough distance so they could shoot them.

It’s also possible that the instruments served more of a ritualistic purpose. The imitative sounds could have had a “high symbolic value,” researchers said.

The seven bones unearthed in the Hula Valley appear to represent a unique, previously undocumented type of flute, though similar discoveries have been made in the Americas, Europe and China.