In the latest Facts & Faith, Hugh Ross deals with the so-called
Neanderthal "flute" and other matters. There is a nice picture of the bone
with holes, too. The article is a good one, entitled "The Meaning of Art and
Music."
One important point he makes, which bears repeating, is how difficult
it is to say that "art" is associated with biblical humanness. "Most of us
have seen chimpanzee art that compares favorably with modern art. Bower birds
are known to decorate their nests." But we don't really consider birds human,
or even incipient humans, do we? (Well, there might be a few...)
Ross mentions a debate going on about "spirit art," art that would
indicate "shaman-like" awareness, and thus true humanity. The debate is
detailed in Bower, "Visions on the Rocks," Science News, vol. 150 (1996) pp.
217-217. But note: neither group suggests that spirit art dates back earlier
than 27,000 years.
As for the "flute":
"The three Slovenian archeologists who made the discovery addressed, and
reasonably dismissed, the idea that the holes might have been bored by the
teeth of a large carnivore rather than by a bipedal primate. However, the seem
to overlook some more obvious considerations. The bone was found near a hearth
with charcoal and many burnt fragments of animal bones. One of the holes goes
all the way through the bone and the other does not. These facts suggest at
least some likelihood that the bone was an instrument for lighting fires (by
twirling a twig in or through one of the holes with a bow). The holes may
result from the bone's use as a hammer head or an axe head. Other
possibilities abound. Most importantly, the researchers apparently did not
construct a bear femur flute according to this bone's specifications to test
whether or not it is capable of producing music....
"[W]e may also question to what degree of certainty music an be declared a
manifestation of the spirit. Some music may simply express the soulishness we
share with bird and mammal species. Neurobiologists Albert Yu and Daniel
Margoliash have just published a paper documenting the amazing musical
abilities of zebra finches [Yu and Margoliash, "Temporal Hierarchical Control
of Singing Birds," Science, vol. 273 (1996) pp. 1871-1875], advancing the
theme of a recent book on bird songs by C. K. Catchpole and P.J.B. Slater
[Catchpole and Slater, Bird Song: Biological Themes and Variations (Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995)]." (Facts & Faith, Vol 10, No. 4,
Fourth Quarter 1996 at p. 11).
***
In a sidebar:
"Ironically, as the three Slovenian archeologists annonced their flute
discovery, two American anthropologists, Jeffrey Schwartz and Ian Tattersall,
published their research on thirteen Neanderthal skulls. They found huge nasal
bones, much larger sinus cavities than modern humas, and no tear ducts. Such
features not only differ radically from humans, but they also appear unique
among all land mammals yet discovered. This skeletal evidence provides one
more proof, perhaps the strongest indicator to date, that modern humans cannot
be Neanderthals' descendants." (Ibid.)
References:
1. Schwartz and Tattersall, "Significance of Some Previously Unrecognized
Apomorphies in the Nasal Region of Homo neanderthalensis," Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences USA, vol. 93 (1996), pp. 10852-10854.
Laitman, et al., "What the Nose Knows: New Understandings of Neanderthal Upper
Respiratory Tract Specializations," id. at pp. 10543-10545.