-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu]On
Behalf Of R. Joel Duff
Sent: Saturday, November 25, 2000 1:18 AM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Cc: evolution@calvin.edu
Subject: ICR acknowledges neaderthal missinformation
Two months ago there was some discussion of a current ICR broadcast in which
one of the guests cited evidence of neaderthal's using instruments from a
April fools article in Discover Mag. I noticed today that the December
issue of "Acts and Facts" from ICR contains an admission of the error.
There is some interesting spinning of situation to make it not sound as good
as possible.
Here is the pertinent excerpt from the December 2000 Acts and Facts 28(12)
[Glenn Morton] While I find it symptomatic of ICR’s research standards that
ICR got caught by this April Fool’s joke, I don’t think what they are doing
is spinning. There is a Neanderthal flute found at Divje Babe in Slovenia.
While it is controversial and is not without its critics, it does seem to me
that it represents an indication of Neanderthal musical abilities. Beyond
the flute, Neanderthals made reindeer phalange whistles by the bucket load.
"It is impossible not to notice abundant Saiga tatarica phalanges with
holes. For example, there are 41 such phalanges with holes. For example,
there are 41 such phalanges (55.4% of the total) in the second layer
(excavations of 1981 and 1982). In most cases crudely pierced holes are
connected with the dorsal surface near the distal epiphysis of the first and
second phalange, but are also often located on the articular surface. In
many cases the phalanges have two or even three holes, mainly tending to the
distal or proximal ends. It is rare that a hole in situated in the medial
section. Average dimensions of holes are 3-4 mm; whereas larger ones,
sometimes up to 10 mm in size, are much rarer. The origin and purpose of
these holes is not quite clear. The study of phalanges with holes has
already been going on for more than 150 years, and various explanations have
been proposed: the obtaining of marrow; use as whistles; and the result of
biting through by a carnivore while the animal was alive. Other hypotheses
seem to be fantastic, for example, that they were vessels for poison. It is
possible that some of the phalanges with holes were really used as whistles.
R. Wetzel wrote that phalanges with roughly pierced holes from
Bocksteinschmeide H which he had recognised as 'hunters' pipes' were shown
by experiment to utter quite strong shrill sounds. One cannot completely
exclude the hypothesis about marrow procuring, although in many ways it does
not withstand criticism. New evidence about natural causes has recently been
adduced. In any case, the abundance of phalanges with holes at Prolom II
cannot be comprehensively explained by any one of the causes mentioned
above. Maybe in future investigations of these artefacts at Crimean sites
(apart from Prolom II they are known in any layers of Zaskalnaya V, VI IX,
as well as at Prolom I, and elsewhere) will make clear their enigmatic
origins." ~ Vadim N. Stpanchuk, "Prolom II, A Middle Palaeolithic Cave Site
in the Eastern Crimea with Non-Utilitarian Bone Artefacts," Proceedings of
the Prehistoric Society 59, 1993, pp 17-37, p. 33-34.
And should someone say that these items are not really whistles, they are
accepted as such by archaeologists, WHEN FOUND IN ASSOCIATION WITH MODERN
MAN.
"Also in Moravia are the important Gravettian sites of Predmost, Pavlov
and Brno. At Pavlov a large number of hut plans have been identified, oval,
round and five-sided in shape, with some postholes and hearths. The
associated industry included decorated bone and ivory objects including
animals and human figures, and a number of phalange whistles; the occupation
has been radiocarbon dated to c. 25,000 B.P." ~ J.M. Coles and E. S. Higgs,
The Archaeology of Early Man, (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1969), p. 298
It is only when such items are found with Neanderthals that anthropologists
question. The same amazing phenomenon has occurred in regard to the Divje
Babe flute.
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