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‘Neanderthal Bone Flutes’ : Simply Products Of Ice Age Spotted Hyena Scavenging Activities On Cave Bear Cubs In European Cave Bear Dens, Cajus G. Diedrich
‘Neanderthal Bone Flutes’ : Simply Products Of Ice Age Spotted Hyena Scavenging Activities On Cave Bear Cubs In European Cave Bear Dens, Cajus G. Diedrich
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Punctured extinct cave bear femora were misidentified in southeastern Europe (Hungary/Slovenia) as ‘Palaeolithic bone flutes’ and the ‘oldest Neanderthal instruments’. These are not instruments, nor human made, but products of the most important cave bear scavengers of Europe, hyenas. Late Middle to Late Pleistocene (Mousterian to Gravettian) Ice Age spotted hyenas of Europe occupied mainly cave entrances as dens (communal/cub raising den types), but went deeper for scavenging into cave bear dens, or used in a few cases branches/diagonal shafts (i.e. prey storage den type). In most of those dens, about 20% of adult to 80% of bear cub remains …