Musical Instrument Timeline

• 41000 BCE - 32768 BCE
  First known musical instrument, a bone flute (found in modern-day Germany).
• c. 5000 BCE
  The first aulos musical instruments are carved from bone.
• 2700 BCE - 2300 BCE
  The first depiction in art of the aulos musical instrument appears in Cycladic sculpture.
• 2000 BCE
  The first examples of the lyre in the Bronze Age Aegean occur in the Cyclades and on Minoan Crete.
• 1500 BCE - 1450 BCE
  The 'Harvester Vase' of Minoan origin depicts a sistrum player.
• 1420 BCE - 1300 BCE
  Clay dancing figures including a rare female lyre player are made in Minoan Palaikastro.
• c. 1400 BCE
  Lyres across the Aegean assume S-shaped arms and become more decoratively carved, most often with sculpted birds.
• 1250 BCE - 1200 BCE
  A Linear B tablet from Greek Thebes mentions lyre players as members of the royal palace staff.
• 600 BCE - 550 BCE
  The silver stater coin of Calymna in Caria depicts a tortoise shell lyre on its reverse side.
• c. 550 BCE
  The silver drachma of Delos depicts a lyre - symbolic of Apollo - on its reverse side.
• c. 400 BCE
  Theban musicians invent a more sophisticated aulos with metal keys.
• 328 BCE
  Herodoros of Megara wins the first of ten consecutive trumpet competitions at the Olympic Games.
• c. 100 BCE
  Coins of Kos and Thespiai depict a lyre on their reverse side.