Divje Babe I Cave and the Neanderthal Flute

The bone

In 1995, a team led by Ivan Turk found the thigh bone of a cave bear cub at Divje Babe I. It lay in a layer that held Neanderthal stone tools, close to a hearth, and the shaft is pierced by holes in a line. Turk proposed that it was either a musical instrument or a gnawed bone, and favored the instrument. Mitja Brodar, who had excavated the cave before him, was very skeptical that it was Neanderthal work.

Radiocarbon dating of charcoal from the hearth first gave about 43,100 years before present, plus or minus 700. Electron spin resonance dating later showed the layer was outside the reliable range of radiocarbon and put it at roughly 50,000 to 60,000 years. Popular coverage still often prints the earlier figure.

The park

In December 2025, the Slovenian government declared the archaeological park a cultural monument of national importance. Cerkno's tourism board now runs it.

The argument

In 1998, Francesco d'Errico and colleagues argued in Antiquity that holes like these are common on cave bear bones and that carnivores make them. The same year, Philip Chase and April Nowell argued in Current Anthropology that carnivore chewing explains this bone. In 2015, Cajus Diedrich published a case for hyena scavenging in Royal Society Open Science. Turk and colleagues have replied in print each time, in 2016, 2018, and 2020.

If the holes are Neanderthal work, the bone is the oldest known musical instrument. If they are tooth marks, it is one more cave bear bone.

Guided tours run April 15 to October 15, and the cave interior is open only with a guide. Public tours start at 10am on Saturdays from April through October, at 10am on Sundays from May through September, and at 4pm on Thursdays in June, July, and August. They need no booking. Private tours need at least 3 working days' notice, which the Cerkno tourism board takes at +386 5 373 46 45. In 2026, adults paid €12, children 6 to 15 paid €9, younger children were free, and a private group of up to 5 paid €70. Payment is cash only.

The flute is not at the cave. It is in the permanent archaeology exhibition "The Earliest Stories from the Crossroads" at the National Museum of Slovenia in Ljubljana, open 10am to 6pm Monday through Wednesday and Friday through Sunday, and 10am to 8pm on Thursday. The museum is closed January 1, May 1, November 1, and December 25. Adult admission was €8 from March 2026, and it is free on the first Sunday of each month.