The spacing of the four holes on a fragment of a bone flute excavated at a Neanderthal campsite is just what is required to play the third through sixth notes of the diatonic scale--the seven-note musical scale used in much of Western music since the Renaissance. Musicologists ttherefore hypothesize that the diatonic musical scale was developed and used thousands of years before it was adopted by Western musicians.
The statement 'No musical instrument that is known to have used a diatonic scale is of an earlier date than the flute found at the Neanderthal campsite' most strongly supports the hypothesis.