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Why is the claim that Neanderthals made music at Divje Babe controversial?
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Neanderthal
Artist's rendering of Homo neanderthalensis, who ranged from western Europe to Central Asia for some 100,000 years before dying out approximately 30,000 years ago.
The claim that a flutelike wind instrument found at the Divje Babe site in Slovenia proves that Neanderthals created music is considered controversial by many researchers.1
The skepticism surrounding this artifact stems from the difficulty in determining whether the holes in the bone were intentionally crafted by hominins to produce musical notes or if they were the result of natural processes, such as being punctured by the teeth of scavenging carnivores. Because the object's status as a musical instrument is not universally accepted, it remains a subject of significant debate within the scientific community regarding the cognitive and symbolic capabilities of Neanderthals.1