Neanderthal flute

The oldest form of art – music, appeared in the early Stone Age (Palaeolithic), at the moment when someone started to imitate the sounds, rhythms and melodies of nature either with their body or by slapping their hands against themselves. Rituals, religion, myths, stories and common fireplaces connected and brought people together. It was most likely the need to strengthen social and spiritual bonds with the world that caused the development of music, singing and dancing.

The development of music took place in parallel to the biological and cultural development of humans. And yet, hunters and gatherers could also use musical instruments to send sound signals or create sounds that would attract the animals they hunted.

Objects that Make Sounds and Musical Instruments from the Palaeolithic to the Early Modern Period
The first musical instruments were most likely stones and bones, used as percussion. The most numerous and recognisable finds among the Palaeolithic instruments are bone flutes.

During the excavation of the Copper Age stilt settlements near Ig, excellently preserved ceramic rattles were discovered. They still produce the same sound that the dwellers in the stilt settlements listened to in the middle of the 3^rd millennium BC. Sceptreswere uniquely shaped rods made of tin bronze, with chains of various lengths and pendants attached to them. By shaking them, they were able to make the metal clink.

Situla art was at its peak in the 5^thcentury BC and among the depictions of mythological representations and the court life of the Iron Age aristocracy, are images of musicians. They are playing pan flutes – sometimes alone or sometimes in pairs with other musicians, who play either another pan flute or a lyre. At the exhibition, we will also discover instruments from later time periods, such as the Roman cornu, pipes, jaw harps, hunter’s horn, pipes for bagpipes and the ivory recorder (approx. 1700).

Divje Babe I Cave
Under the northern edge of the Šebrelje Plateau in Idrija-Cerkno Hills lies the Divje Babe I Cave. It was here that the Institute of Archaeology ZRC SAZU led a systematic excavation between 1980 and 1999. The examined cave sediments, which were excavated to a depth of 12.5 metres at the entrance to the cave, were deposited there during the last ice age and are between 115,000 and 40,000 years old. The cave, which was primarily a cave bear’s den, was occasionally visited by Neanderthals.

The Neanderthal bone flute was discovered in the cave in 1995 in the middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) layer. Radiometric dating showed that the layer with the flute was deposited 50,000 to 60,000 years ago. The timeline and the associated finds placed the flute in the period of the Neanderthals. The punctured thigh bone from a young cave bear, with an appearance reminiscent of a flute, attracted an incredible amount of attention.

Technical and Musical Research of the Neanderthal Flute
There was no easy answer to the key question of whether the holes are of natural origin or man-made. At the exhibition, we will get more familiar with the procedures used by researchers to check how the holes could have been made and their distribution. The results do not support the thesis of the carnivore origin of the holes. However, it turns out that it is possible to create the same type of holes that are present on the flute by using pointed tools made of stone or bones, such as those in Divje babe.

A crucial part of studying Palaeolithic musical instruments are music and sound tests. Soon after its discovery, the Neanderthal flute was studied by acoustics expert and researcher of folk instruments Drago Kunej and ethnomusicologist Mira Omerzel-Mirit. They both confirmed that it is possible to play this object like a flute. Drago Kunej created different reconstructions of the flute with two or three holes, based on the then-current findings about the number of holes. He also tried to discover different ways to play it.

Nearly 15 years after it was discovered, the flute attracted the attention of academy musician Ljuben Dimkaroski, who collaborated with Ivan Turk to create a new reconstruction of the instrument with four holes using the fossil thigh bone of a young cave bear, taking into consideration all of the current findings. He used the narrow end of the flute as a mouthpiece, where part of the cutting edge is preserved. The range of the instrument is 3.5 octaves.

Academy musician Boštjan Gombač has been collaborating with the National Museum of Slovenia since 2016 by testing different versions of reconstructed flutes. On 8 February 2025, he performed at the opening ceremony of the European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica – Gorica 2025 initiative, playing the most reliably reconstructed flute, created with the help of an accurate 3D model of the original.