Located on an Early Stone Age site, the Divje Babe Archaeological Park enjoys worldwide fame for the discovery there of the earliest known musical instrument. The bones of over 60 animal species, stone and bone tools and remains of ice-age fire pits were found in a cave on the steep rocky slopes of the Idrija and Cerkno hills. The age of the layers dated at the Divje Babe site ranges from 35,000 to 116,000 years. The archaeological excavations at Divje Babe yielded a major find that has attracted the attention of researchers from around the world and raised new questions about the history and development of mankind.
In 1995, excavations at the site conducted by Ivan Turk and Janez Dirjec from the ZRC SAZU Institute of Archaeology unearthed the earliest known musical instrument in the world, found in the Moustérian layer, which, judging from the context of the find, its stratigraphic position and dating, could have been made only by a Neanderthal. The instrument is at least 10,000 years older than any of the earliest Palaeolithic bird-bone flutes so far discovered, which were made by the first anatomically modern humans to settle in Europe. The find was embedded near the remains of a fire pit dating back 50,000 to 60,000 years.
Scientists believe that the holes, different from those made by animal teeth because of the angle of the puncture and absence of cracks, prove that the Neanderthal used a stone and bone tool (an example of which was also found in the cave) to bore four holes into the left thighbone of a juvenile cave bear. The spacing between the punctures and the sharpened rim for the mouthpiece, which facilitate a three-and-a-half-octave range in non-equal temperament tuning, suggest that the find really is a musical instrument. The natural shape of the left thighbone, its size and re-design is ergonomically adapted for a right-handed musician and supposedly not accidental. Thus, it cannot be called a flute, but rather a special kind of musical instrument, one which has radically changed our view of the Neanderthals, who went extinct approximately 30,000 years ago.
A replica of the flute is on view at the Divje Babe Archaeological Park, while the original 60,000-year-old instrument – the earliest known musical instrument in the word – is kept at the National Museum of Slovenia.
Maia Juvanc
