Divje Babe flute (possible Neanderthal instrument)
Flauta de Divje Babe (posible instrumento neandertal)
- Date
- c. 60-43 ka · confidence low
- Place
- Divje Babe I cave, Cerkno, Slovenia
- Credited to
- Neanderthals (according to Turk et al.)
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A cave-bear femur with aligned holes found in 1995 in a Mousterian layer; proposed as the oldest known flute. Whether it is an instrument at all is strongly disputed.
Radiocarbon dates of about 43-50 ka (calibrated, up to c. 60 ka by other methods). Several studies (Albrecht, d'Errico, Diedrich) attribute the holes to hyena or wolf bites; Turk and others defend a human origin. Hence the entry is flagged as disputed.
What it led to
- debate on Neanderthal music and symbolic cognition
- a standard reference in the debate over carnivore tooth marks versus intentional perforation