A 2,800-year-old bone flute from Troy is the first instrument ever found in the city Homer sang

Archaeologists have been digging at Troy, in modern-day Türkiye, since 1870 — through gold diadems, wine goblets and arrowheads. This season they found something none of those digs ever produced: music. A bone flute about 2,800 years old, from a layer dating to the eighth century BCE — around the time Homer composed the Iliad and the Odyssey — is the first musical instrument ever discovered at the site, Türkiye's culture minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced. It is the first direct evidence of the ancient city's musical life: proof that the city of epic battles also made time for song.