The earliest depictions of a transverse flute in Western culture come from Byzantium in the 10th century
Nothing is known about what flutes were like, or
what music they played, in the 10th century. Pictures provide
the only indications that transverse flutes even existed in Europe.
Medieval flute page
Tenth- and 11th-century Byzantine manuscript illustrations provide hundreds of images of flutes, usually in the hands of shepherds and most often held to the player's right.
An early 11th-century copy of the sermons of St Gregory of Nazianz shows a goatherd who holds his instrument to the left. In the accompanying sermon St Gregory describes the rebirth of nature at Eastertime.