After 18,000 years of silence, an ancient musical instrument played its first notes. The last time anyone heard a sound from the conch shell trumpet, thick sheets of ice still covered most of Europe.

A large conch shell that had been languishing in a museum for decades has been revealed as the oldest known seashell instrument after archaeologists examined it more closely and realized belatedly ...

Some 18,000 years ago, in a cave in what we now call France, a human being left behind something precious: a conch shell. It was not just any conch shell. Its tip had been lopped off—unlikely by ...

A large conch shell overlooked in a museum for decades is now thought to be the oldest known seashell instrument — and it still works, producing a deep, plaintive bleat, like a foghorn from the ...

Feb. 11 (UPI) --An 18,000-year-old conch shell believed to be the world's oldest instrument of its type was played by a horn player for the first time in thousands of years as part of a study by ...

A seashell found in a French cave in 1931 appears to have been modified by prehistoric people so that it could be used like a trumpet. This horn, however, is not the oldest known musical instrument.

The two sides of a 12-inch (31 cm) conch shell discovered in a French cave with prehistoric wall paintings in 1931. AP WASHINGTON — A large conch shell overlooked in a museum for decades is now ...