Bone Flute

Music is ubiquitous in all societies today, yet it is often seen as a “luxury” by writers on human evolution and not as important as spoken language.  Unlike those writers, we shall explore the functions music can play in societies today, and use such insights to evaluate the musical instruments that begin to appear in the archaeological record from 40,000 years ago.  The surviving musical instruments are made of durable materials, such as bone and ivory, and tend to be found in groups at large archaeological sites.  Their complexity indicates that we are missing earlier, less complex instruments.  Rather than seeing music as a mere adornment to language, we shall explore how music can affect us physically, socially and emotionally, and assess the contexts in which the surviving instruments are found in that light.

Reading

Attenborough, D. 2000. The Song of the Earth. (Relevant section can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P76eSsRKCac; 5 minutes into clip).

d’Errico, F., Henshilwood, C., Lawson, G., Vanhaeren, M., Tillier, A.-M., Soressi, M., Bresson, F., Maureille, B., Nowell, A., Lakarra, J., Backwell, L. & Julien, M. 2003. Archaeological Evidence for the Emergence of Language, Symbolism, and Music—An Alternative Multidisciplinary Perspective, Journal of World Prehistory 17: 1-70 (esp. pp. 33-48).