Fig 2 - uploaded by Jordi Serangeli
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
All examples of bones of cave bear with holes from the period of the Middle Paleolithic and Early Upper Paleolithic that have been classified as flutes are discussed in this paper. Evidence is offered suggesting that in fact they are not flutes. The suggested pipe from Divje babe I is also discussed, which would belong to the same group of pseudo-a...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... Austria and neighbouring countries, 10 cave bear bone objects have been published as being examples of possible flutes ( fig. 1 and fig. 2). Of these, a rib from the Bukovác cave and an ulna from the Drachenhöhle do not contain a cavity, as might also be the case with a long bone with four holes from the Lieglloch. Of the other seven objects, four appear to have only one hole (Bukovác cave, Lieglloch, Salzofenhöhle, Große Badlhöhle), so to describe them as "flutes" would ...
Similar publications
We tried in the present study to apply the electron spin resonance method (ESR) combined with uranium-series method (US), for dating fossilized human teeth and found valuable archaeological sites such as Karain Cave in Anatolia. Karain Cave is a crucial site in a region that has yielded remains of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, our direct ancestors...
Citations
... An artefact that has raised many discussions is a cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) femur shaft from the site of Divje Babe I in Slovenia, with six perforations at regular distances, of which three are intact. This object has divided the opinion of researchers between those who support the explanation that it is a musical instrument made by a Neanderthal (Turk & Košir, 2017;Turk et al., 1995Turk et al., , 2018Turk et al., , 2020 and those who deny it with taphonomic arguments, as they attribute the perforations to punctures made by the canine teeth of carnivores (Chase & Nowell, 1998;d'Errico et al., 1998ad'Errico et al., , 1998bd'Errico et al., , 2003Albrecht et al., 2001;Diedrich, 2015). ...
A decorated ulna of a gannet (Morus bassanus) was found in 1966 during the exploration of the archaeological site of Torre cave (Gipuzkoa, northern Iberian Peninsula). The present study offers a new appraisal of this truly outstanding art object through a technological and stylistic analysis enriched by more recent finds. What makes this object extraordinary is the fact that it is one of the most complete specimens in the Iberian Peninsula. Moreover, the Torre tube is one of the few remains with peri-cylindrical decoration displaying a complex combination of motifs. It is profusely decorated with figurative representations (deer, horse, ibex, chamois, aurochs and an anthropomorph) and signs (single lines, parallel lines, zigzags, etc.) in two rows in opposite directions. The tube resembles objects from other Magdalenian sites in Cantabrian Spain and the Pyrenees, which corroborate the exchange of technical and iconographic behaviour.
... Among them, d'Errico was the only one who micro-scoped the find and explained the findings of the microscopy in accordance with his previous estimate [12], published in Antiquity in 1998 [17][18][19]. I. Turk with colleagues [10,[20][21][22][23][24][25] (see also [26]) continuously argumentatively claimed that some of their statements, regarding their explanations about the origin of the holes and damages on the perforated bone, are incorrect [13,14,16,[27][28][29]. To obtain more accurate explanation of the find, I. Turk and colleagues performed and published a series of experiments on perforating fresh brown bear femur diaphyses, using models of wolf, hyena, and bear dentitions (Figure 2), as well as replicas of Palaeolithic tools that were present in various Mousterian levels in DB [20,21,30,31]. ...
... Their discussion of the find is distinctly one-sided and, with one sole exception [13], included no experiments. They presented certain erroneous claims to support their explanation, e.g., about the number of holes [14,19,27], contra [20,22,23], how the holes cannot be made in any other way than by drilling [13,28], contra [10,21,30], the placement of holes on the thinnest parts of the cortical bone [13,14,16], contra [22][23][24], actual possibilities of teeth grip in connection to holes and gnawing marks [13,14,16,18,19], contra [20,24,25], the sound capabilities of the musical instrument, if that is what the find actually is [19,27], contra [7,36,37,38], the inappropriateness of a cave bear femur as a support for a musical instrument in comparison to the supports from bird bones [29], contra [7,36,37,38], and about the frequency of gnawing marks [18] (Figure 9 from Reference 18), [19], which in certain cases can also be explained as corrosion formations [10,39]. Corrosion was found to be especially strong in the layer containing the find [10,40]. ...
The paper is a critical review of different evidence for the interpretation of an extremely important archaeological find, which is marked by some doubt. The unique find, a multiple perforated cave bear femur diaphysis, from the Divje babe I cave (Slovenia), divided the opinions of experts, between those who advocate the explanation that the find is a musical instrument made by a Neanderthal, and those who deny it. Ever since the discovery, a debate has been running on the basis of this division, which could only be closed by similar new finds with comparable context, and defined relative and absolute chronology.
... However, subsequent research by Turk and others (Bastiani and Turk, 1997;Kunej and Turk, 2000;Turk et al., 2001Turk et al., , 2003Turk et al., , 2006Turk et al., , 2014aTurk et al., , 2016Dimkaroski, 2011Dimkaroski, , 2014Tuniz et al., 2012;Horusitzky, 2014) revealed that there are no reasonable grounds for the carnivore hypothesis to be true. Nevertheless, doubt about the anthropogenic origin of the holes became deeply rooted in part of the scientific community due to some authors who strongly advocated the hypothesis of the carnivore origin of the holes (Chase and Nowell, 1998;Holdermann and Serangeli, 1998;Albrecht et al., 1998Albrecht et al., , 2001d'Errico et al., 1998d'Errico et al., , 2003d'Errico, 2002;d'Errico and Lawson, 2006). ...
... Interpreting the holes on the DB femur as the result of gnawing by a cave hyena (Albrecht et al., 1998(Albrecht et al., , 2001Diedrich, 2015) has no sound basis, since no cave hyena skeletal remains, digested bones, or coprolites have been found to prove its presence at Divje babe I. The corroded surfaces of bones are not the consequence of digestive juices because it also appears regularly on complete limb bones and especially on dolomite clasts (Fig. 10c, d) (Skaberne et al., 2015). ...
... The mCT investigation did not confirm a clear carnivore origin of these features (Tuniz et al., 2012). Two out of three examined dents on the anteriorlateral side opposite to Hole 2, which had been interpreted as counterbite marks to the tooth that produced Hole 2 (Albrecht et al., 2001;d'Errico et al., 1998d'Errico et al., , 2003d'Errico and Lawson, 2006), do not correspond to dents made by teeth in either shape or structure (Fig. 9B). These two irregularly shaped dents have a flat bottom forming a square cross-section, rather than a U-shaped cross-section, typical of tooth impression (Tuniz et al., 2012, 586, Fig. 6). ...
... Brade en conclut, par erreur, que les deux pièces représentées (la flûte perdue et la côte) sont marquées par des empreintes contra-latérales. Albrecht, Holdermann, Serangeli (2001) reprochent aux chercheurs de ne pas tenir compte de l'étude de Chr. Brade. ...
... Les publications Holdermann, Serangeli (1988) et Albrecht, Holdermann, Serangeli (2001) présentent un tableau avec une liste de 10 pièces publiées autrefois comme "f lûtes", de la région Autriche et pays limitrophes, faites à partir d'os des ours des cavernes. ...
... -Sur la liste des flûtes imaginaires d 'Albrecht, Holdermann, Serangeli (2001), Lokve, Lieglloch (1trou) (perdu), Salzofenhöhle et Badlhöhle sont éliminées comme flûtes parce qu'elles n'ont qu'un seul trou. Réponse: Ce fait n'est pas contre la musicalité. ...
Detailed studies of cave sediments in the Divje babe I cave, in western Slovenia, have revealed both fossil hairs and the imprints of such hairs present within phosphate aggregates in the clastic sediments. These aggregates consist of fine rock and bone fragments, as well as hairs cemented by phosphate precipitated from pore water. The hairs and their imprints were discovered by means of scanning electron microscopy and are likely to have belonged to cave bears, which were the most frequent inhabitants of this cave. From X-ray micro-computed tomography showing the spatial distribution of the hair imprints, and their number, it appears that the hairs did not belong to one particular animal which died at the location where the samples were collected, rather the hairs probably accumulated on the floor of the cave not only from cadavers, but also because hairs were shed during the hibernation of bears and their visits to the cave.
In 1995, an unusually perforated femur of a juvenile cave bear was found in the Divje babe I Palaeolithic cave site in Slovenia. The supposition that it could be a flute led to heated debates. According to its archaeological context and chronostratigraphic position, if made by humans, it could only be attributed to Neanderthals. The crucial question was related to the origin of the holes. These could only have been made either by a carnivore or by human intervention. Results of experimental testing of both hypotheses do not support a carnivore origin of the holes. Furthermore, the method of artificial creation of the holes, which left no conventional traces of manufacture, was defined. Computed tomography revealed traces, which could be the result of human agency and called into serious question the origin of some features previously declared to be solely of carnivore origin. Recent musical experiments performed on a replica of the reconstructed musical instrument revealed its great musical capability. Together with some other findings from Divje babe I, the Mousterian musical instrument offers a unique insight into the Neanderthals’ symbolic behaviour and their cognitive abilities. The multidisciplinary results of comprehensive analyses of this exceptional find are first presented here together with its chronostratigraphic, palaeo-environmental, and archaeological contexts.
Music is one of the earliest arts, and its origins are very important for the understanding of the human evolution. Musical behaviour is universal for all past and present communities, and is related to many ritual and leisure activities. The earliest musical instruments are discovered in the Early Upper Palaeolithic, and include mainly whistles and flutes. However, identification of sound-producing instruments in prehistory is a very difficult task, due to various reasons – one is poor preservation, but also the available data available are often ambiguous. In this paper an attempt will be made to identify all possible sound-producing instruments discovered so far in the Neolithic in the central Balkan area, to classify them, and finally to offer hypotheses on their significance and possible use. Artefacts include several possible bone flutes and also several rattles and they may have been used as toys as well as on festivals and in ritual activities.
The suspected flute from the Mousterian site Divje babe I in Slovenia was analysed with the aid of multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) and reinterpreted in the light of two hypotheses, one of which envisages an artificial origin of the holes and the other a natural one. It was found that there were four holes on the diaphysis; that at least two were made prior to the damage to the proximal and distal ends of the diaphysis; and that carnivores could not have made all the holes, but one at most. The holes are very probably artificial, made by the combined use of stone and simple bone tools found at the Divje babe I site. The majority, and probably all the damage made by carnivores on the suspected flute, are of secondary origin. Conclusions about the origin of the holes cannot therefore be reached only on the basis of the damage, and the hypothesis of an artificial origin cannot be rejected.
The presumed or probably palaeolithic "flutes" of Divje babe I and Istállósko{combining double acute accent} caves, with other "possible flutes" are discussed on an objective basis. Refutation of the absolutely sure affirmations of the opposing party. Errors and tendentious tables are pointed out. There are only probabilities and subjective convictions in this field and archaeology must cohabit with dreams.
Paleolithic archaeologists and human paleontologists have failed to address the origins of a phenomenon that is both absolutely central to the human way of life and unique to our species. In all species of mammals, there are codes (rules, concepts, values, etc.) that govern behavior. Among humans, and only among humans, some of these codes are created socially, through interactions among individuals. Other species may learn codes socially, from their parents or other members of their species, but the codes are not created socially. Human culture is thus an emergent phenomenon, one that cannot be understood without taking into account the interactions among individuals.
Because human society creates the culture that governs individual behavior, it can control individual members in a way that other primate societies cannot. Culture can facilitate cooperative and group activities, but can also lead individuals to behave contrary to their own evolutionary best interests. This book describes the emergent nature of human culture. It proposes hypotheses to explain how a phenomenon that is potentially maladaptive for individuals could have evolved, and to explain why culture plays such a pervasive role in human life. It then reviews the primatological, fossil, and archaeological data to test these hypotheses.
