Musical instruments are one of the hallmarks of the radical change in complex culture that started to mark human history after 50,000 BCE. Some scientists even like to refer to our species after this benchmark era as _Homo Sapiens Sapiens_, stressing the “extra” smarts we apparently showcased after this time. But important questions remain. Pictured here is the so-called “Neanderthal flute,” dating from about 43,100 years ago, and it calls into question the idea that the phenomenal cultural growth was solely the domain of our own species. Found in the Divje Babe cave in Slovenia in 1995, this object is made out of the femur of a cave bear and musicologists testing it have argued that its holes are spaced apart enough to give it a range of multiple octaves. While some scholars argue for a Homo Neanderthalis origin, others disagree. Some researchers have even argued that the object didn’t even have a musical purpose, but was the product of a carnivore bite, or even that the holes date to a later time. You can listen to one artist’s musical renderings from the flute with the link below:
https://images.app.goo.gl/DjFPwtLXvLmF5aFc8 .
