in 1986 several bone flutes were found in jiahu in henan province, china. they date to about 6,000 bc. they have between 5 and 8 holes each and were made from the hollow bones of a bird, the red-crowned crane. at the time of the discovery, one was still playable. the bone flute plays both the five- or seven-note scale of xia zhi and six-note scale of qing shang of the ancient chinese musical system.