An old shell found eighty years ago in a cave near the town of Marsoulas, on the French side of the Pyrenees, is probably the oldest wind instrument of this type. The cave was already inhabited at the end of the last Ice Age and is the first in the Pyrenees in which wall paintings have been discovered. The 31 centimeter shell, a twisted horn, had been in a museum in Toulouse since 1931 and was rediscovered and examined for the first time in a new inventory. The tip of the shell has broken off, creating a hole with a diameter of about 3.5 centimeters. Since the tip is the hardest part of the shell, it seems unlikely that this happened by accident. There are also holes in the largest turn of the shell. Finally, the shell turned out to be painted with red hematite, indicating that it was an object of special value.
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Reconstruction of a prehistoric musician blowing on the shell in the cave.
(image Gilles Tosello) –
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Toulouse
All told, the researchers suspected that it could have been a wind instrument. An experienced horn player could indeed elicit three notes from the shell. The opening into which the player blew was irregular and contained a layer of organic material, which may indicate that it had a separate mouthpiece. This is not uncommon with shells used as musical instruments. A 3D model of the shell has been made, which allows further research into the musical performance.
Carbon dating of material from the cave that was in the same layer as the shell suggests that the instrument is about 18,000 years old. If so, this shell is the oldest wind instrument of this type ever found. The shell also shows that the inhabitants of the region already had contact with inhabitants of the Atlantic coast, some 200 kilometers to the west. The research was published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.
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