The first ‘Neanderthal cave bear bone flute’ from the Middle Palaeolithic was believed to have been discovered in the 1920s in Potočka Zijalka Jama Cave, Slovenia. But are such finds really ‘Neanderthal bone flutes’ or simply products of Ice Age spotted hyena scavenging activities on cave bear cubs in European cave bear dens?
The latter hypothesis is presented by Dr Cajus G. Diedrich of Paleo-Logic, Independent Institute of Geosciences, in the journal Royal Society Open Science, 2 : 140022. In which he asserts, in no uncertain terms, that :
“The ‘cave bear cub femora with holes’ are, in all cases, neither instruments nor human made at all.”
The paper can be read in full here.