Divje Babe

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Divje Babe is an archeological park located near Idrija in northwestern Slovenia. It is the oldest archaeological site in Slovenia. The site is the location of a horizontal cave, 45 m long and up to 15 m wide. It is located 230 m above the Idrijca river, near Cerkno, and is accessible to visitors. A cave bear femur found at the site could possibly be the world's oldest musical instrument,^[1] but this is in dispute.^[2][3][4] Researchers working at this site have uncovered more than 600 archaeological finds in at least ten levels, including 20 hearths,^[5] the skeletal remains of cave bears, and have studied climate change during the pleistocene.^[6]

Contents 1 "Neanderthal flute" 1.1 Hole shape 1.2 Bone marrow 1.3 Hole spacing and alignment 1.3.1 Diatonic scale 1.3.1.1 Probability analysis 2 See also 3 Notes 4 References 5 Further reading

[edit] "Neanderthal flute"

This section is written like a personal reflection or essay and may require cleanup. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (December 2007)

In 1995, Ivan Turk found an approximately 43,100 year-old^[7] juvenile cave bear femur at the Divje Babe site, near a Mousterian hearth. Because it has characteristics of a flute, he has called it the "Neanderthal flute".^[5] Whether it is actually a flute created by Neanderthals is a subject of debate. It is broken at both ends, and has two complete holes and what may be the incomplete remains of one hole on each end, meaning that the bone may have had four or more holes before being damaged. The bone fragment is the diaphysis of the left femur of a one to two year-old cave bear, and is 113.6 mm in length. The maximum diameters of the two complete holes are 9.7 and 9.0 mm. The distance between the centers of the holes is 35 mm.^[8] The bone has been damaged on all sides by the chewing of a carnivore.^[9]

Soon after its publication, the status of the object as a musical instrument came under scrutiny by taphonomist Francesco d'Errico (et al., 1998), Holderman and Serangeli (1999), and Chase and Nowell (1998, 552), all of whom suggest it is more likely to be the result of carnivore chewing than Neanderthal construction.

If the bone is a flute it would be evidence of the existence of music 43,000 years ago, and of the making of music by Neanderthals.^[10][11] Thus Ivan Turk has called question of whether the holes are of "artificial" (made by Neanderthals) or "natural" (punctures from a carnivore bite) origin the "the crucial question."^[5]

Despite the disagreement about the bone's scarce markings, the bone has become a noted attraction in its Slovenian museum, publicized on official Slovenian websites[1] and is a source of pride for the country. In the West, paintings were made, models constructed, and musicians such as Biology Professor and flautist Jelle Atema[2] have played them publicly. Many educational professionals have taken an interest and maintained webpages[3] about the artifact.

The arguments for one are the other are based on the available taphonomic evidence derived from direct study of the artifact, as well as related studies of Neanderthal tools, and carnivores of the time period.

[edit] Hole shape

D'Errico et. al made an analysis of the artifact in comparison to cave-bear bone accumulations where no hominid presence was known.^[2] They published photos of several bones with holes in them which had more or less circular holes similar to those found in the artifact. Their conclusion was that it was possible for these holes to have been made by animal, and that of the available options this was the most likely. In 2000, d'Errico analyzed the artifact firsthand, and would write that "the presence of two or possibly three perforations on the suggested flute cannot therefore be considered as evidence of human manufacture, as this is a common feature in the studied sample."^[12]

Turk conducted laboratory experiments which pierced holes in fresh bear bones in the manner of carnivore punctures, and in every case, the bones split. Yet in the Divje Babe instance, the bone did not break, a fact not matching expectations of carnivore efforts, as Turk's results showed. Turk wrote, in his monograph and in his article in MIT's Origins of Music anthology, the bone shows no "counter-bites" that one would normally expect on the other side of the bone matching the immense pressure necessary for a bite to make the center holes.

Turk's 1997 monograph reported the holes have similar diameters which would accommodate fingertips , and all are circular instead of oval (as carnivore bites often are). Furthermore, all are in the proper ratio of bore size to hole size found in most flutes, and the bone is the kind (femur) usually used for bone flutes.

An additional examination in 2006 described by Ivan Turk et al, using a technique of "multi-slice computer tomography imaging" has produced results that indicate most or all holes were made before any carnivore damage. The damage had been cited to indicate marrow was present (which attracts carnivores), but Turk argues (Turk, 2005, conclusions) that the tomography results now challenge that conclusion. His conclusion was that "the two partially preserved holes were formerly created before the damage...or before the indisputable intervention of a carnivore...."

[edit] Bone marrow

The issue of how much bone marrow remains in the artifact is important, because the making of flutes from bone usually includes removing the marrow.

Turk, et al (in the monograph Moussterian Bone Flute, p. 160) wrote that "the marrow cavity is basically cleaned of spongiose. The colour of the marrow cavity does not differ from the colour of the external surface of the bone. So we may conclude that the marrow cavity was already open at the time.... Otherwise, it would be a darker colour than the surface of the bone, as we know from coloured marrow cavities of whole limb bones."

April Nowell stated in an interview that "at Turk's invitation, [Nowell] and Chase went to Slovenia last year... They came away even more skeptical that the bear bone had ever emitted music. For one thing, both ends had clearly been gnawed away by something, perhaps a wolf, seeking greasy marrow. The holes could have simply been perforated in the process by pointed canine or carnassial teeth, and their roundness could be due to natural damage after the bone was abandoned. The presence of marrow suggests that no one had bothered to hollow out the bone as if to create an end-blown flute. Says Nowell, '[Turk's] willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, whereas we're not.' "^[13]

[edit] Hole spacing and alignment

There is no evidence that the two holes could have been bitten at the same time. The tooth spans were checked by all taphonomists concerned to see if any animals could bite two or more such holes at once. No match could be found to to any known animals. If a match had been found, it could have been cited as prima facie evidence that the holes were animal-made. This was noted by Turk, et al., in his monograph, and noted from the opposing viewpoint by Nowell and Chase in their Current Anthroplogy article in the Aug-Oct 1998 issue. "Holes in the specimen", wrote Nowell, et al, "were almost certainly made sequentially rather than simultaneously and that the distance between them has nothing to do with the distance between any two teeth in a wolf's jaw." (Current Anthropology, p. 552, Vol. 39, #4, August - October, 1998.)

Turk (2005, 2006) points out that the features "common" between the artifact and other chewed bones studied by d'Errico (see hole shape above) do not include the line-up of the holes. In the d'Errico, et al 1998 Antiquity article, none of the bones referred to or photographed by d'Errico et al, had the feature of 3 or more holes in a straight line.

Marcel Otte (director of the museum of Prehistoire, Universite de Liege, Belgium) pointed out in a Current Anthropology (April 2000) article, that there is a possible thumb-hole on the opposite side of the Divje Babe bone, which, making 5 holes, would perfectly fit a human hand.

In a November 2006 article, Iain Morley (holding the carnivore-origin viewpoint, and who endorsed almost all of d'Errico's findings quoted above) listed an additional observation: "Whilst the collections of cave bear bones examined by d'Errico et al (1998), as well as those discussed by Turk et al (2001), do show similar shaped and damaged holes...none of these occur in the diaphysis of a femur" (the thick part), as is found on the reputed flute (Morley 2006, 329).

Turk wrote in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology book The Origins of Music: "If this probability [of having lined-up holes looking like a flute] were greater (and of course it isn't) it is likely that there would have been more such finds, since...carnivores in cave dens were at least as active on bones, if not more so, than people in cave dwellings....".

The latest overview^[9] on the bone by d'Errico et al., in full, is as follows:

"A well-known example of a controversial musical instrument is that of the so-called Neandertal flute from Divje Babe Cave in Slovenia, found in the Middle Paleolithic layers of the cave and described by the finders as possibly the oldest musical instrument in the world (Fink, 1996; Turk, 1997; Turk et al., 1995). It has been demonstrated (d'Errico et al., 1998a,b) that holes of the same size, shape, and number as those present on the Divje Babe femur occur on cave bear limb bones from cave bear bone accumulations with no human occupation, and that a number of features described as human-made by the discoverers should more likely be interpreted as the result of carnivore damage (Chase and Nowell, 1998).

"A further study (d'Errico, 1998b, 2000) involved detailed analysis of the putative flute and of 77 other perforated bones from different levels of Divje Babe and from four other Slovenian cave bear sites. Among these sites, Krizna Jama is of particular interest as it contains a natural cave bear bone assemblage with no traces of human occupation. A number of variables were recorded. The flute and several others bones were submitted to microscopic analysis. The new study confirms the interpretation of the holes as the result of carnivore damage. In 70% of the cases, the holes on perforated bones are associated with damage characteristic of carnivore action, such as pitting and scoring, and in 20% of the cases, bones show counterbite marks in the form of opposing perforations, or perforations opposite to impressions produced by tooth pressure. Seventy-three percent of the perforated bones belong to young bears, as is the case for the putative flute.

"Holes occur in almost all bones, but they are particularly abundant on limb bones and among them, on femora, the bone on which the purported flute was carved. The presence of two or possibly three perforations on the suggested flute cannot therefore be considered as evidence of human manufacture, as this is a common feature in the studied sample. In the same way, the relatively large size of the holes does not indicate anthropic carving. In fact, the maximum and minimum diameters of the holes on the putative flute are close to the mean value of those of the comparative faunal sample. Moreover, the correlation between the maximum and minimum diameter in this sample indicates a clear tendency towards slightly elongated holes, the same pattern that we observe when measuring the two complete holes of the suggested flute. In the Slovenian sample, 28% of the holes occur in compact bone. The majority of these have only one hole, but bones with two or more holes are also present.

"Another femur of a young cave bear from the same site shows two holes very similar in size and shape to those on the supposed flute, recorded on the same face and in the same anatomical position. Nonetheless, this object could never have been 'playable,' as its epiphyses were not completely opened. Microscopic analysis of the putative flute itself confirms the natural origin of the holes. Many traces typical of carnivore action, such as scoring and pitting, were found near the holes and the ends of the bone (Fig. 9). Clear tooth impressions are also present on the face opposite the holes. The distribution of different types of carnivore damage on the bone surface is consistent with the interpretation of the two holes as resulting from carnivore action. A large deep impression found on the anterior face near the proximal end, indicating strong pressure exerted by carnivore teeth, can reasonably be interpreted as the counterbite of the anterior hole.

"The presence of pitting near the two holes suggests that carnivore teeth touched this area repeatedly. The presence of scoring and pitting at both ends, associated with other traces produced by carnivores, confirms that the bone was heavily damaged by carnivores. In sum, all the evidence suggests that the perforations on the so called Divje Babe 'flute,' like other damage on the same bone, were produced by nonhuman agents. The most probable agent would appear to be the cave bears themselves; the frequency distribution of the hole diameters recorded in the Slovenian sample is very similar to that observed on sites where cave bear is the only species represented, and we have tangible proof that a cave bear could produce large holes in bones with its teeth.

"Of course, this does not mean that Neandertals were unable to manufacture and play musical instruments. It simply means that we cannot use this object to support that hypothesis and that a taphonomic analysis of putative ancient musical instruments is an essential prerequisite to any discussion of their significance for the origin of musical tradition and the evolution of human cognitive abilities."

[edit] Diatonic scale

Bob Fink claimed in his essay^[14] in 1997, that the bone's holes were "consistent with four notes of the diatonic scale" (do, re, mi, fa) based on the spacing of those four holes. The spacing of the holes on a modern diatonic flute (minor scale) are unique, and not evenly spaced. In essence, Fink said, they are like a simple fingerprint. The Divje Babe bone's holes matched those spacings very closely to a series of note-holes in a minor scale. As follows:

Nowell and Chase wrote in Studies In Music Archaeology III (presentations at a 2000 world conference on music archaeology), and saying in the media^[13] as well, that the juvenile bear bone was too short to play those four holes in-tune to any diatonic series of tones and half-tones.

Nowell, "along with archeologist Philip Chase, had serious doubts as soon as they saw photos of the bone on the Internet.... The Divje Babe bone bears some resemblance to the dozens of younger, uncontested bone flutes from European Upper Paleolithic [UP] sites. But, says Nowell, these obvious flutes are longer, have more holes, and exhibit telltale tool marks left from their manufacture. No such marks occur on the bear bone. Canadian musicologist Bob Fink proposed that the spacing of the flute's holes matches music's standard diatonic scale. ...Nowell and Chase teamed with a more musically inclined colleague to show that the bear bone would need to be twice its natural total length to conform to a diatonic scale....."^[13]

Fink's essay originally had a passage which in 1997 recognized the length required when he suggested there may have been a mouthpiece extension added to the bone before it was found broken at both ends.

In addition, three separate museum curators (Prague National Museum; Treasures of the Earth; Birmingham Zoo), experienced with cave bears bones, were quoted from 1997 in "Studies in Music Archaeology III" (cited below) that an unbroken juvenile cave bear femur, in any event, could have been long enough to meet the "in-tune" playing length requirements proposed by Chase and Nowell. The length was confirmed again in July 1997 (published in the Museum-L archives of July 10, 1997) by Patrick Boylan who checked the usual lengths of yearling cub femurs in the large collections of cave bear bones at the Prague museum.

[edit] Probability analysis

Fink wrote a rebuttal^[15] to d'Errico, Nowell, et al in 1999, which was published 2003 in the conference proceedings Studies in Music Archaeology III, outlining a probability analysis on whether it was reasonable to believe the bone was an accident, simplified below. (Nowell, d'Errico et al had already concluded that an interpretation of a carnivore origin to the object was the most probable interpretation.)

Using O's to represent holes in the Divje Babe flute there is this arrangement of holes which could prima facie be seen as random (approx):

O___O____O__O

Fink notes the following observations regarding the perforations in the bone:

1. Lined-up, four in a row, and also:
2. Have similar sized diameters, and:
3. Are all nearly circular (unlike bites which are usually oval);
4. And like a flute, the holes fit the size of fingertips, and exist on a hollow-bore cylindrical bone.

It is Fink's position that these four observations do not indicate randomness and therefore do not square with the unequal spacing which appears to be caused randomly. A test of probability was needed for how likely carnivore bites or other natural causes could bring about such a non-random orderly appearance.

Fink explained that on a cylinder about the size of the Divje Babe bone, four holes can be made in line. While keeping the four holes still lined-up in a row, if any one or more of the holes' locations is moved left or right by 1/4 inch or more, then the four holes, as a set, can accumulate about 680 spacing patterns that do not signify a musical scale nor anything else known nor which seems clearly purposeful. To understand this visually, here are pictures of 5 cylinders with holes showing just five of all the ways to make different arrangements, below:

Only a few would match other musical scale formations or be equally spaced. [A standard permutation formula was used in this analysis, based on the Turk-estimated length of the juvenile cave bear bone.] Furthermore:

If one or more holes is moved up or down the same 1/4 inch, each move will cause the four holes to go visually out-of-line, as a set, and no longer seem flute-like. There are about 10 such locations possible to place one hole out-of-line around the Divje Babe bone diameter, giving 10 ways to be "out of line" by moving one hole. As there are four holes that each could be placed up or down 10 different ways, that gives a probability calculation of 10⁴, or 10,000 ways for the holes to be out of line.

Each of the 680 horizontal spacings can have 10,000 ways to be put vertically out-of-line. Therefore: The calculation concludes by multiplying the 10,000 by 680, giving 6,800,000 or close to 7 million different ways in which random arrangements of four holes can appear -- on any similar length and diameter cylinder as is the Divje Babe bone -- without looking like a flute with lined-up holes. Below is a picture of one such possible variant of non-flute-like random holes:

Conversely, the study concludes it is improbable in the extreme that there would be more than only a few chances in several million that random bites will line-up in a known scale spacing. And further (without factoring in additional odds against all four holes having similar-sized diameters; their roundness, and for nature imitating other flute-like features), there are few chances for all that to be caused from four separately-made carnivore bites. [See "The bone's marks and appearance" sub-head above.]

[edit] See also

• List of Neanderthal sites
• Neanderthal
• musilanguage
• prehistoric music
• Musical scale
• diatonic

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading