About 18,000 years ago, the Magdalenian inhabitants of the Marsoulas Cave in what is now France changed a conversion of the predatory snail Charonia lampas in a wind instrument. A team of researchers in France has now released a survey of how the instrument would have sounded.
Reconstruction of the sea shell that is played. In the background, a red dotted buffalo adorns the walls of Marsoulas Cave; similar motifs adorn the instrument. Image credit: Gilles Tosello.
The old shell horn was discovered in 1931 at the entrance to the cave of Marsoulas, located in the French Pyrenees foothills.
Marsoulas was the first decorated cave discovered in this region in 1897 and was studied from the end of the 19th century until today.
Although qualified as an ‘extraordinary discovery’, the object has been described by archaeologists as a trace of human intervention and has been interpreted as a ‘loving cup’.
Marine shell of Charonia lampas from Marsoulas Cave, France: (A) side view; (B) front view and designation of the anatomical areas; (C) remnants of red pigment preserved on the columella; (D) detection of red dots and lines visible on the enhanced photograph; many similar red dots, produced with the fingertips, are present against the walls of the cave; (E) set of red dots forming a bison silhouette (length 1.1 m); (F) geometric sign formed by a double line of points. Image credit: Fritz et al., doi: 10.1126 / sciadv.abe9510.
But after looking at the track with advanced imaging techniques, Carole Fritz of the Université de Toulouse and colleagues unveiled numerous clues of human modifications to it, making it a possible musical instrument.
They determined that the Magdalenian hunter-gatherers had carefully adjusted the shell to install a nozzle.
The ancients also removed the outer edges of the labrum from the shell, the flared reef protruding from the main opening of the shell, and decorated the outside of the shell with ocher pigment designs similar to the style of wall art found in the Marsoulas Cave is.
“This is one of the very rare examples, if not the only one for the Paleolithic period, of a musical instrument made from a large shell, and the first shell of this use discovered so far,” the scientists said. said.
The Charonia, wind instrument: (A) sagittal portion of the 3D model of the shell that makes it possible to visualize the hole drilled at the level of the sixth tower (after the apex has been opened), probably around a tube insert to facilitate the mounting of a nozzle; (B) detail of the circular perforation drilled from the apex; the stripes on the edge are due to a sliding tool; (C) top view of the 3D model showing the perforation; (D) 3D cross-section at the level of the seventh tower; (E) the concave of Marsoulas in its Magdalenian context (hypothetical restitution); (F) concave from Southeast Asia, the mouth of which is covered with a black layer, intended to protect the lips of the blower; (G and H) concave from Syria and detail of its severed mouth, near that of Marsoulas; (I and J) cone of New Zealand and its nozzle is made of a decorated bone tube. Image credit: Fritz et al., doi: 10.1126 / sciadv.abe9510.
Using photogrammetry techniques to highlight changes on the outside that are not easily visible to the naked eye, they have carefully marked the traces of human intervention.
They noticed the fingerprint-shaped, faded ocher marks, hit points along the modified labrum, and signs that the shell of the shell had been carefully and deliberately removed to create a second opening.
The authors also noticed traces of a brown organic substance, probably a resin or wax, around the top opening that may have been used as an adhesive to attach a nozzle.
They then used CT scans to visualize the inside of the shell, and found that two additional holes in the spiral layers were cut directly below the shell of the shell, which could probably accommodate the long tube extension of the nozzle.
The team then enlisted the help of a musicologist who specialized in wind instruments, who could reproduce the sound of the horn in three different notes that almost matched the notes C, D and C in the modern musical name.
“We already know that prehistoric people transformed many shells into wearable ornaments and that they therefore attributed significant corporate symbolism to them,” the researchers said.
“This sea-shell horn, with its unique sonority, both deep and strong with a lasting reverberation, sheds light on a musical dimension hitherto unknown in the context of Upper Paleolithic societies.”
The team’s report was published in the journal Scientific progress.
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C. Fritz et al. 2021. First recording of the sound produced by the oldest upper Paleolithic seashell horn. Scientific progress 7 (7): eabe9510; doi: 10.1126 / sciadv.abe9510
This article is based on press releases from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and CNRS.