Punctured reindeer phalanges from the Mousterian of Combe Grenal (France)
Abstract
There are a number of reindeer phalanges from the Mousterian levels of Combe Grenal with holes penetrating into the marrow cavity. Many of these resemble and could have been used as whistles. However, it is clear that many of the holes are due to natural causes, and in the remaining cases, the cause of the hole is ambiguous, often because of post-depositional chemical corrosion of the bone. This assemblage thus neither proves nor disproves the existence of either music or symbolism during the Middle Paleolithic of Europe.
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