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 […]
Tag: flute
Melanesian nose-flutes – did they ever exist?
Reports about the existence of nose flutes in Melanesia may have been greatly exaggerated. According to Univ.-Doz. Dr. Raymond Ammann of the Institutes für Musikwissenschaft, Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck (Department of Music, University of Innsbruck) who writes : “[…] references to the existence of nose flutes in Melanesia are often based on unacknowledged references to earlier publications […]
The lowest of the low, flautily
The subcontrabass flute may or may not be exactly the same thing as the double contrabase flute. That depends on who you talk to about it, and how knowledgable they are, and how prone to suddenly become violent and attempt to pummel you for raising what they may regard as the spectre of heresy. Several […]