Scientists have discovered the oldest playable musical instrument in the world. It’s a flute carved from a bird’s wing bone more than 9,000 years ago. The flute was discovered with other flutes at an ancient burial site in China. “The flute makes a reedy, pleasant sound,” says researcher Garman Harbottle of New York’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. Harbottle helped date the flutes.

Hear the ancient flute being played.