time before this but had not been preserved because of nondurability
of the material.The transition from a nondurable to a more durable
material or the reverse could also occur so rapidly that it creates a false
impression of the sudden flowering of something that gradually devel-
oped over an extended period or the decline of something that in reality
persisted.With this we have arrived at the complex question of continu-
ity and discontinuity which is raised so strongly in part of Europe
between the middle and Upper Paleolithic by the (questionable) link
between the different intellectual capacities of two human subspecies:
Neanderthal and modern human.
Concerning unusual,mostly single,holes in bones (for a critical review,
see Albrecht et al.1998),Brodar (1985) established that they were
present in large numbers in Slovenia at the beginning of the Upper
Paleolithic and then completely disappeared.Some are almost identical
to the holes in the Divje babe I bone (Turk,Dirjec,and Kavur 1997b:
figure 11.12).The sudden appearance and disappearance of problematic
holes in bones and their concentration to Aurignacian sites and scarcity
in Mousterian sites (Holdermann and Serangeli 1998) may not be due
to mass occurrence of cave bears as indicated by their remains in the
Interpleniglacial,sudden extinction of carnivores,or sudden change in
their behavior,but something else.From the European perspective in
general and the Italian in particular (Leonardi 1988),it is notable that
Slovenia in the late phase of the Upper Paleolithic (Gravettian and
especially Epigravettian) was extremely poor in bone products and
art.
If we assume that not all the holes were made by carnivores,we have
no explanation in the literature of the purpose of individual unusual
holes which sometimes appear on bones together with impressions of
carnivore teeth and other characteristic carnivore damage.The follow-
ing is possible.Paleolithic hunters were predators just like carnivores
with whom they came in contact daily.They therefore identified with
them.They saw that carnivores left traces on bones that long remained
visible.Holes punctured by teeth made a great impression and they
started to copy them by adding their own chipped holes,which meant
simply,I,too,was here.Later,by adding holes and experimenting on
other materials,a flute was created (Dauvois 1994:14).
In summary,if we bear in mind an explanation that is based on excep-
tional possibilities and positive results of every variety of experiment of
archeological and biomechanical character,it is highly probable that the
pierced bone from Divje babe I site is the product of human hands from
the invention phase of some technological and cultural process;this is a
great deal more probable than that it was heavily chewed.This raises the
new question of what the product actually was.It is surprisingly similar248 Drago Kunej and Ivan Turk