Archaeoacoustics: The Archaeology of Sound

Conference held in Malta Feb. 19–24, 2014

Click here to see the poster I presented at this conference.

Link to the paper I presented. Music and Neanderthals: An Alternative Point of View

Link to this conference's report: http://www.otsf.org/conference2014.htm

The science of archaeoacoustics includes a broad range of knowledge having to do with sound and ancient sites and artifacts.  Prehistoric music is included in this area of study. As a musician, I found this aspect of the subject to be of special interest.

If you are wondering what this all has to do with creationism, this would not be surprising, as archaeoacoustics is not a subject usually discussed by creationists. But in my studies of Neanderthals I had found that there was a lot of ambivalence in the secular scholars' attitude toward these ancient people. While forced to admit that Neanderthals were human, at the same time scientists have tried hard to claim that these people were primitive and far behind us advanced moderns in their abilities. One object that has attracted dissention is a Neanderthal bear bone flute excavated in a cave in Slovenia in 1995. Because it is obviously a flute (copies of it have been played by flute players), there would seem to be no room for claiming otherwise. However, those whose worldview keeps them from recognizing that Neanderthals could possibly have made and played an instrument like this have tried hard to discredit this bone piece as a flute. Their claims that animals could have gnawed the holes in a straight row are disproven by statisticians, as well as by tests on similar bear bone.

In my paper I show that if the literal, biblical view of history and humans is accepted, it is easy to believe that Neanderthals could have played the flute. It's all a matter of worldview.