Neanderthal Flute

Neanderthal Flute – Divje Babe Neanderthal Bone Flute: Replica of the Oldest Known Musical Instrument – The original is estimated to be 55000 years old!

Terrapin Trading Ltd are proud to announce a replica of the famous Divje Babe flute.

It is a faithful reproduction of the flute which has come to be known as the Neanderthal Flute.

The Divje Babe flute, also called tidldibab, is a cave bear femur pierced by spaced holes that was unearthed in 1995 during systematic archaeological excavations led by the Institute of Archaeology of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, at the Divje Babe I near Cerkno in northwestern Slovenia. It has been suggested that it was made by Neanderthals as a form of musical instrument, and became known as the Neanderthal flute. The artifact is on prominent public display in the National Museum of Slovenia in Ljubljana as a Neanderthal flute

This find is currently the strongest material evidence of Neanderthal musical behaviour. It is at least 10,000 years older than the earliest Aurignacian wind instruments discovered in the German caves Hohle Fels, Geißenklösterle and Vogelherd. The Neanderthal musical instrument is on display at the National Museum of Slovenia in Ljubljana.

According to Bostjan Gombac, the Slovenian multi instrumentalist the flute will not be fully playable until further research has been done.  It is extremely difficult to play.  Anyone else selling this flute is not telling the truth if they say it can be easily played. I see one other seller of this and they even have a video purporting to be them playing it but they are playing it the wrong way around! I will upload a video of a replica being played by Bostjan.

We have been in communication with Bostjan during the making of our flute and thank him for his valuable information.

Neanderthal Flute Features:

Made in white from high quality plastics
The design is an exact rep lica of the accepted reconstruction of the original flute
Dimensions 12cm long / 4.72 inches long
Great conversation piece
Very difficult to play let alone master
Made in the U.K.

Neanderthal Flute Links

Learn more about the flute in this compelling film about it, featuring the afforementioned Bostjan Gombac
and if you want to learn how to play rim-blown flutes