Evolution question

[Scarlett]

The oldest known musical instrument is 43,000 years old. Our brains are 12,000 years old, in their current evolutionary state.

So how different was the brain of the 43,000 year old flute maker? Did he have capacity for language etc? What was he capable of doing? What is known about him?
Any good websites where I can find out the answers?

[jno]

I can't help with a website but just to point out things are deduced from what we know. Once we know a man had a flute, we deduce that he knew how to play it and liked music (whether for aesthetic pleasure or maybe religious/ritual uses). Before that, we wouldn't have known. So our knowledge about what people were able to do is always in flux.

[Mosaic]

The time that you are talking about is also the point at which examples of art start to appear, so a fair approximation of what was going on can be explored through looking at the emergence of this 'non-functional' aspect of human development
eg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_painting
IMO people probably thought pretty much like they do now, but had a more specific set of problems to occupy them, like food, shelter and safety. It's heartening to think that even then music (and presumably dance) were important.

[LazyGun]

@Scarlett - I don't understand this part of your OP. " Our brains are 12,000 years old, in their current evolutionary state."

Could you elaborate? Clarify what you mean, and where you got your 12,000 year old figure from?

[Old_Geezer]

No expert of brains from years past, but have to say I've not come across any 43,000 year old flute players. Must be a lot of candles on his or her cake each year.

If they could fashion a flute I'd suspect the mental faculties were capable of using language. Heck, even other species have their own calls that mean something.

Aside from that I suspect one can only make informed/calculated guesses as to capability and suchlike.

[wildwood]

Evolution is a gradual process and a few thousand years is nothing. The big difference would have been perception. If we hypothetically found a 43,000 years baby and raised it in modern Society it would not be that much different from us.

[argorstran]

There's a You tube clip of Klaus Dona giving a talk about ancient artefacts found around the world that are a mystery to explain . It's quite a long clip ( he mentions something about an ancient flute at around the 45min mark) . If you haven't already seen this video I'm sure you'll find it fascinating . Link :

[Scarlett]

Many thanks! :)