A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical
instruments dates back to the beginnings of human culture. The academic study of musical instruments is called organology.
The date and origin of the first device of disputed status as a musical instrument dates back as far as 67,000 years old;[citation needed] artifacts commonly accepted to be early flutes date back as far as about 37,000 years old. However, most historians[who?] believe determining a specific time of musical instrument invention to be impossible due to the subjectivity of the definition.
Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of the world. However, contact among civilizations resulted in the rapid spread and adaptation of most instruments in places far from their origin. By the Middle Ages, instruments from Mesopotamia could be found in the Malay Archipelago and Europeans were playing instruments from North Africa. Development in the Americas occurred at a slower pace, but cultures of North, Central, and South America shared musical instruments.
