Flute in Hohle Caves

[Tully]

Anyone on this forum know more about the discovery of the 30,000+ year old Flute in the Hohle Caves Sthn Germany. Only heard small amount way down here. Same cave as the Venus Statue? Same layer? Pity they cannot find a contemporaneous Human tooth in that Cave, hope they do really. Also any sites one can go to with earlier discoveries that have been published. Are they the same type flutes found in Austria? French Pyrenees?

Cheers Tully

 

[Maciamo]

There is an article about it on Dienekes' blog. The flute, which is now the oldest known musical instrument in the world, was indeed found next to the Venus of Hohle Fels (the oldest figurative art found so far).

Although they are undeniably very important findings, I can't say I am surprised by either. Archaeologists have only scratched the surface of Earth (literally !) and I expected thousands of other objects from that period to be found. European caves are among the easiest sites to find human remains. You wouldn't know where to start looking in the middle of a flat plain. But that doesn't mean that there aren't millions of archeological sites to be discovered under our feet. And that's just for Europe. Imagine what could be found in a Africa.

There is still some controversy on who painted the caves of that period (such as Lascaux). Were they Homo Sapiens freshly arrived from the Middle East, or indigenous Neanderthals ? They might also have been an early admixture of both (maybe from the Middle East). The same question could be asked about Hohle Fels.