Slovenia 2007 – Archeological Finds – The oldest flute

1)   Photo

  

2)   Links

http://www.posta.si/Namizje.aspx?tabid=700&artikelid=9033

3)   Name

Archeological Finds – The Oldest Flute

4)   Informations

Date of issue: 23/11/2007

Design:	Tamara Korošec (Znanstvenoraziskovalni center SAZU, Inštitut za arheologijo)
Motif:	Bone Flute from Divje Babe Cave
Printed by:	Oriental Press, Bahrain
Printing technique:	4-colour offset
Sheet:	miniature sheets of 1 stamp
Paper:	GSM 102 g/m2

 5)   Description

The Oldest Flute

In 1995, the excavations of the archaeologists of the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts (SRC SASA) unearthed a perforated thigh bone (femur) of a juvenile cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) from the cave bear bone accumulations of the Divje Babe I Cave Site situated over the hamlet of Reka in western Slovenia. The artefact discovered was later recognised as possibly the oldest flute in the world, dating back to the middle of the last Ice Age, which began 115,000 years ago and ended with a long-lasting warming 10,000 years ago. Slovene and American scientists determined its age by analysing the succession of cave sediment layers containing other artefacts from that period and climate records, and by using the Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) dating. The sediment layer housing the bone flute was thus estimated at about 55,000 years. The last Glaciation was the age of Neanderthal man. Until the arrival of modern humans 45,000 years ago, Neanderthals were the only human occupants of Europe, which means that the flute could only be produced by them. This sheds new light on Neanderthals and their cultural capacity, bringing them closer to our direct ancestors – fully modern humans – who manufactured and used similar bone flutes after their arrival to Europe. While the capacity of modern humans to manufacture musical instruments is an uncontested fact, many doubt that the Neanderthal man possessed the same ability. This is the reason why the Slovene archaeological find, which is 10,000 years older than the oldest uncontested bone flute, unleashed a long national and international debate among scholars, shaking the very foundations of some of the common perceptions of the Neanderthal man. The status of the artefact as a flute became disputable. Doubts were voiced about the explanation of the artificial (human-made) origin of the holes. It was suggested that they are more likely to be the result of natural causes, in particular bites from ancient carnivores rather than Neanderthal construction, which is a complete nonsense in this case. Still, no matter how we interpret this unexpected find, which is admittedly unique both in time and place, it is the fact that it is truly the oldest of its kind, and the possibility that the find could be the flute cannot be ruled out based on the current evidence. Ivan TURK, Institute of Archaelogy, SRC SASA, Ljubljana