After this introduction,questions and riddles raised by the recent find
of a flutelike fragment of the thigh bone of a young cave bear from the
cave site of Divje babe I in Slovenia (figure 15.1) will perhaps be more
understandable.The find is firmly dated to the middle Paleolithic,and
may thus represent the oldest such find in the world (Turk,Dirjec,and
Kavur 1995,1997a;Turk 1997).Doubt about the correctness of the inter-
pretation of the find as a flute has existed ever since its discovery (Turk,
Dirjec,and Kavur 1995,1997a,b),since the find is nearly 10,000 years
older than the flute from Geissenklösterle and other bone products with
clear signs of deliberate working (Mellars 1996).Thus,dissenting arche-
ological viewpoints are to be expected (Albrecht et al.1998;Chase and
Nowell 1998;d’Errico et al.1998;Holdermann and Serangeli 1998).
However,the find deserves special attention,since other weak archeo-
logical signals from its time suggest that we may have to rethink our
views on the origin of Paleolithic art and technology.Unfortunately,
these signals have been altered by time and numerous other external236 Drago Kunej and Ivan Turk
Figure 15.1
Presumed bone flute from Divje babe I site immediately after its discovery.Posterior (left)
and anterior (right) views.(Photo:M.Zaplatil.)Fig.15.1