Impression: Reconstruction of the instrument currently being performed. In the qualifications, a red dotted buffalo decorates the walls of the Marsoulas Cave similar motifs enhance the instrument.
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Credit rating: © Carole Fritz et al. 2021 / drawing: Gilles Tosello
Nearly 80 yrs after its discovery, a massive shell from the ornate Marsoulas Cave in the Pyrenees has been analyzed by a multidisciplinary team from the CNRS, the Muséum de Toulouse, the Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès and the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques-Chirac (1): it is thought to be the oldest wind instrument of its sort. Experts expose how it appears in a research printed in the journal Science Improvements on 10th February 2021.
The Marsoulas Cave, involving Haute-Garonne and Ariège, was the to start with decorated cave to be found in the Pyrenees. Found out in 1897, the cave bears witness to the commencing of the Magdalenian (2) society in this location, at the close of the Final Glacial Greatest. All through an stock of the content from the archaeological excavations, most of which is stored in the Muséum de Toulouse, experts examined a substantial Charonia lampas (sea snail) shell, which had been mostly overlooked when found in 1931.
The idea of the shell is damaged, forming a 3.5 cm diameter opening. As this is the most difficult aspect of the shell, the split is clearly not accidental. At the reverse close, the shell opening demonstrates traces of retouching (cutting) and a tomography scan has exposed that 1 of the first coils is perforated. Ultimately, the shell has been decorated with a purple pigment (hematite), attribute of the Marsoulas Cave, which indicates its position as a symbolic object.
To affirm the hypothesis that this conch was utilised to produce seems, researchers enlisted the assist of a horn player, who managed to make three seems shut to the notes C, C-sharp and D. As the opening was irregular and included with an organic coating (3), the scientists presume that a mouthpiece was also connected, as is the case for far more new conches in assortment of the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. 3D impressions of the conch will allow this lead to be explored and validate whether it can be utilised to generate other notes.
The to start with carbon-14 relationship of the cave, carried out on a piece of charcoal and a fragment of bear bone from the identical archaeological level as the shell, delivered a date of around 18,000 many years. This will make the Marsoulas conch the oldest wind instrument of its form: to day, only flutes have been found in previously European Higher Palaeolithic contexts the conches identified outside Europe are much much more recent.
In addition to immersing us in the seems created by our Magdalenian ancestors, this shell reinforces the idea of exchanges in between the Pyrenees and the Atlantic coast, a lot more than 200 kilometres absent.
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Even more details:
– Listen to the seem of the Marsoulas conch: https:/
– See the 3D design: https:/
Notes
(1) The laboratories associated are the Travaux et recherches archéologiques sur les cultures, les espaces et les sociétés (CNRS/Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès/Ministère de la Society), the Maison des sciences de l’homme et de la société de Toulouse (CNRS/Université Fédérale de Toulouse) and the Laboratoire d’archéologie moléculaire et structurale (CNRS/Sorbonne Université).
(2) Masking a period amongst all over 21,000 and 14,000 a long time BP, it is characterised by worked animal bones and antlers and intensive exchange networks. The Altamira and Lascaux caves are the most famed examples.
(3) As the amount is constrained, analyses have not been capable to identify its character.
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