break.The fanlike distal widening at the metaphysis forms a kind of
natural mouthpiece and thus facilitates the embouchure.Such a manner
of stimulating sound in a flute is also mentioned several times with other
related archeological finds (Galin 1988),including an Upper Paleolithic
find from Pas du Miroir in France (Marshack 1990) where a mouthpiece
is clearly visible on a beautifully made and preserved flute.Some authors
reject the possibility of such a manner of playing because,in their
opinion,the femur of a young cave bear is too wide at the metaphysis
for it to be possible to close most of the bone with the lips and at the
same time direct air at the cut edge (Horusitzky 1955).This is the main
reason for instruments similar to this one being classified among trans-
verse flutes.
We demonstrated that it is possible to make sound on a bone flute in
such a manner.We succeeded in doing this with all of the reconstruc-
tions.The flute could be held against the lips in various ways (for a more
exact description,see Kunej 1997).The bone wall by the distal shallow
notch,with a thickness of around 2 to 3mm,had a sharp enough cut edge
to enable a fine and pure sound,a fairly large tonal range,and the ability
to produce overblowing.Even badly cleaned spongiosa on the fossil bone
did not greatly hinder a fair range of tones;it was only more difficult to
achieve higher tones and prevent overblowing.With the reconstruction
from fresh bone,badly removed spongiosa had significantly less influ-
ence,since it is more homogeneous and even fatty and was not explic-
itly porous as is fossil bone.Thus it was simpler to produce sound and to
achieve higher tones and overblowing with the reconstruction from fresh
bone than with fossil bone.
This manner of stimulating sound seemed at first more suitable from
acoustic and ethnomusicological standpoints,and was therefore the most
thoroughly tested.The basic pitch and overblowing to produce overtones
could be executed on the open or closed flute,and with the closed flute
occasionally even to the second overtone (i.e.,third harmonic).
Many modern flutes belong to the family of block or duct flutes.In
principle,our find could also have been adapted into such an instrument
if a short block (fipple) had been set in the bone to shape the jet of air
and direct it at the cut edge (figure 15.9b).A block can also be provided
by unremoved spongy bone in which a narrow incision is made (hori-
zontal hole) that directs the jet of air at the cut edge.Production of such
mouthpieces seems more demanding,and our find has no trace of such
a mouthpiece or way of blowing,so a flute of this type was not acousti-
cally tested.
Archeologists have classified a large number of bones with holes as
transverse flutes,a possibility suggested in our instrument by the one
hole that at least theoretically enables stimulation of sound.The cut edge256 Drago Kunej and Ivan Turk