Neanderthal flute

Johnny Reinhard said:

>Adam has been dropping hints about the Tuesday (10/29/96) NYTimes article
>on a Neanderthal instrument that has been found in Slovakia. Until this
>find it was commonly thought that the "art" was the province of Cro-magnon.
>
>The photo of the instrument indicaters a 4-hole instrument with only the
>middle 2 in good shape. The holes were apparently punched through a
>smaller cave bear's femur. Though it is called a flute throughout the
>article, there is nothing left of what initiated the sound (e.g. single
>edge, shakuhachi, fipple, etc.)

The next question for those McMaster researchers to address was whether
Neanderthals had proper lips and diaphragms for good flute technique; also,
since it has four-holes, this find must certainly tell us that Neanderthals
had a mere three digits per hand.

Next comes the terrible question of how Neanderthals notated their pitches.

Another question: did ASCAP distribute royalties for Neanderthals' campfire
performances?

-Adam

_________________
Adam B. Silverman
153 Cold Spring Street; A3
New Haven, CT 06511
(203) 782-1765

abs22@pantheon.yale.edu



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