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A shell found during excavation of a cave with prehistoric wall paintings in France is believed to be the oldest known seashell instrument, and it still works.
The large shell was discovered in 1931 during the discovery of the cave in the French Pyrenees, and it was assumed to be a ceremonial cup.
After sitting in a museum for decades, the researchers took a fresh look and determined that it had been modified thousands of years ago to become a wind instrument.
They invited a French horn to play it, producing a deep, whining sound like a foghorn from the distant past.
Archaeologists at the University of Toulouse estimate that it is around 18,000 years old.
They published their findings in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday.
“Hearing it for the first time, for me it was a great emotion and a great stress,” said archaeologist Carole Fritz.
I was afraid that touching the 12-inch shell might damage it, but it didn’t. The horn produced clear notes C, C sharp, and D.
Snail shells have been used extensively in musical and ceremonial traditions, including in ancient Greece, Japan, India, and Peru. The shell instrument found in Marsoulas Cave is now the oldest known example.
Previously, a shell instrument found in Syria was about 6,000 years old, said another Toulouse archaeologist, Gilles Tosello.
The latest discovery was made after a recent inventory at the Museum of Natural History in Toulouse.
The researchers noticed some unusual holes in the shell. Fundamentally, the tip of the shell broke off, creating a hole big enough to blow out. Microscopic inspection revealed that the opening was the result of deliberate craftsmanship, not accidental wear, according to Tosello.
By inserting a small medical chamber, they found that another hole had been carefully drilled into the inner chamber of the projectile. They also detected traces of red pigment in the mouth of the conch, matching a decorative pattern found on the wall of the Marsoulas cave.
“This is a really solid classical archeology,” said Margaret Conkey, an archaeologist at the University of California at Berkeley, who was not involved in the research.
“This discovery reminds us that their lives were much richer and more complex than just stone tools and big game.”
Marsoulas Cave is not located near an ocean, so prehistoric people must have moved widely or used commercial nets to obtain the shell, Conkey and the researchers said.
“What makes conch shells so interesting is that the spiral cavity formed by nature is perfectly adept at resonating musically,” said Rasoul Morteza, a Montreal composer who has studied conch acoustics and was not involved in the paper. .
Using a 3D replica, the archaeologists plan to further study the horn’s note range.
Tosello said he hopes to hear the ancient instrument played inside the cave where it was found.
“It’s amazing when there’s a forgotten object somewhere and all of a sudden it comes back to light,” he said.
