Divje Babe flute

Divje Babe flute
Divje Babe flute
	The artifact as displayed in the museum
Material	Bone
Long	11.2 cm (4.4 in)
Created	Middle Paleolithic (50000 - 60000 BP)
Discovered	1995 Divje Babe cave, Slovenia
Present location	National Museum of Slovenia, Ljubljana

The Divje Babe flute, also called tidldibab, is a cave bear femur pierced by spaced holes that was unearthed in 1995 during systematic archaeological excavations led by the Institute of Archaeology of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, at the Divje Babe I near Cerkno in northwestern Slovenia.^[2]^[3] It has been suggested that it was made by Neanderthals as a form of musical instrument, and became known as the Neanderthal flute. The artifact is on prominent public display in the National Museum of Slovenia in Ljubljana as a Neanderthal flute.^[1] As such, it would be the world's oldest known musical instrument.^[4]

Like many other Middle Paleolithic (Mousterian) finds that might reflect symbolic behavior and advanced cognitive abilities among Neanderthals, this find was met with severe criticism and rejection by a part of the scientific community.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8] Finds of symbolic significance are of primary interest within Paleolithic research. Special attention is devoted to discoveries that predate the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe about 40,000 years ago.

^ ^a ^b "Neanderthal Flute – the Flute from Divje Babe". Natural History Museum of Slovenia. Archived from the original on 3 January 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
^ Turk, I., Dirjec, J., Kavur, B. 1995, The oldest musical instrument in Europe discovered in Slovenia? Razprave 4. Razreda Sazu 36, 287–293.
^ Turk, I. (ed.) 1997, Mousterian »Bone Flute« and Other Finds from Divje Babe I Cave Site, Slovenia. Opera Instituti Archaeologici Sloveniae 2, Ljubljana.
^ Omerzel-Terlep, Mira. "Koščene piščali: pričetek slovenske, evropske in svetovne instrumentalne glasbene zgodovine" [Bone flutes: Beginning of the history of the instrumental music in Slovenia, Europe, and world] (PDF). Etnolog (in Slovenian): 292. ISSN 0354-0316. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2013-04-04.
^ d'Errico, Francesco; Villa, Paola; Llona, Ana C. Pinto; Idarraga, Rosa Ruiz (1998). "A Middle Palaeolithic origin of music? Using cave-bear bone accumulations to assess the Divje Babe I bone 'flute'". Antiquity. 72 (275): 65–79. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00086282. S2CID 55161909.
^ Albrecht, G.; Holdermann, C.S.; Kerig, T.; Lechterbeck, J.; Serangeli, J. (1998). ""Flöten" aus Bärenknochen—Die frühesten Musikinstrumente?". Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt. 28: 1–19.
^ Chase, Philip G.; Nowell, April (1998). "Taphonomy of a Suggested Middle Paleolithic Bone Flute from Slovenia". Current Anthropology. 39 (4): 549–553. doi:10.1086/204771. S2CID 144800210.
^ Morley, Iain (2006). "Mousterian Musicianship? The Case of the Divje Babe I Bone". Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 25 (4): 317–333. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0092.2006.00264.x.

[Museum-1] "Neanderthal Flute – the Flute from Divje Babe". Natural History Museum of Slovenia. Archived from the original on 3 January 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2017.

[:12-2] Turk, I., Dirjec, J., Kavur, B. 1995, The oldest musical instrument in Europe discovered in Slovenia? Razprave 4. Razreda Sazu 36, 287–293.

[3] Turk, I. (ed.) 1997, Mousterian »Bone Flute« and Other Finds from Divje Babe I Cave Site, Slovenia. Opera Instituti Archaeologici Sloveniae 2, Ljubljana.

[4] Omerzel-Terlep, Mira. "Koščene piščali: pričetek slovenske, evropske in svetovne instrumentalne glasbene zgodovine" [Bone flutes: Beginning of the history of the instrumental music in Slovenia, Europe, and world] (PDF). Etnolog (in Slovenian): 292. ISSN 0354-0316. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2013-04-04.

[:7-5] 'Errico, Francesco; Villa, Paola; Llona, Ana C. Pinto; Idarraga, Rosa Ruiz (1998). "A Middle Palaeolithic origin of music? Using cave-bear bone accumulations to assess the Divje Babe I bone 'flute'". Antiquity. 72 (275): 65–79. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00086282. S2CID 55161909.

[:8-6] Albrecht, G.; Holdermann, C.S.; Kerig, T.; Lechterbeck, J.; Serangeli, J. (1998). ""Flöten" aus Bärenknochen—Die frühesten Musikinstrumente?". Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt. 28: 1–19.

[:9-7] Chase, Philip G.; Nowell, April (1998). "Taphonomy of a Suggested Middle Paleolithic Bone Flute from Slovenia". Current Anthropology. 39 (4): 549–553. doi:10.1086/204771. S2CID 144800210.

[:10-8] Morley, Iain (2006). "Mousterian Musicianship? The Case of the Divje Babe I Bone". Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 25 (4): 317–333. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0092.2006.00264.x.

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