<<Before anyone else posts on this, I think I will. There is a report in
Science News April 4, 1998 p. 215 reporting a study April Nowell and Philip
G. Chase which expresses doubt that the Neanderthal flute reported widely
in the media last year was a flute. The original internet report can be
found at >>
Glenn,
Thanks for posting the original report of the flute on the web. It seems to
me that it should not be too difficult, given the powerful microscopes we
have, to establish whether or not the holes in the flute were manmade or not.
The regular shape of the holes and their placement, it seems to me, argue for
their being bored by Neandertals. I have a hard time visualizing how holes
could be punched in by an animal without splinter marks all around it.
I'm surprised that Turk states at the end of the article that "traces of teeth
on the bone have not been discovered." Yet Nowell and Philip Chase say "The
bone was heavily chewed by one or more carnivores Perhaps the meat was
stripped from the bone by carnivores, after which the Neandertals formed the
flute.
Bob