The oldest musical instruments ever are flutes made from mammoth-ivory and bird-bone. In most likelihood, a flute made of a vulture-bone found in a cave in Europe is the oldest identifiable musical instrument. The time period may have been around 40,000 years ago. Mammoth-ivory flute fragments have also been found. Flute makers must have used only stone tools and faced a lot of difficulty in carving out the flute. Researchers believe that these ancient flutes are the proof of the fact that a musical tradition which helped in communication and formation of social bonds existed long ago.