The shell was largely overlooked when it was found at the Marsoulas Cave in the Pyrenees mountain range in 1931, but researchers at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France; Toulouse Museum; University of Toulouse – Jean Jaurès; and Musée du quai Branly – Jacques-Chirac have released an audio recording as part of a new study published on Wednesday.
The people who made the instrument were probably hunter-gatherers. Credit: © Carole Fritz et al. 2021 / Gilles Tosello
The tip of the sea snail shell (Charonia lampas) is broken, forming an opening 1.4 inches in diameter. The advice is the hardest part of the case, the researchers said in a press release, so the break is not accidental.
There is also evidence of cutting, perforation and decoration using hematite, a red pigment used in cave paintings that make the Marsoulas cave famous.
The researchers worked with a sound to test their hypothesis that the shell was used to produce sounds, with the musician being able to make sounds close to the C, C-sharp and D notes.
The fact that the opening is irregular and covered with an organic coating led researchers to believe that a mouthpiece was originally attached.
The presence of muscles on other shells around the world adds weight to this interpretation, said Gilles Tosello, co-author of the study and archaeologist at the University of Toulouse.
Carbon dating on coal and bear bone from the same archaeological layer as the objects show dates back 18,000 years ago, according to researchers. This makes the case the oldest wind instrument of its kind.
However, the people who did it did not necessarily use the shell to do what we consider music, Tosello told CNN.
“It could have been used as a communication tool,” he said, explaining that it could have been used in art-related rituals inside the cave.
The researchers also found similarities with materials found in caves along the Atlantic coast of northern Spain, giving rise to the idea that these people were nomadic hunter-gatherers who moved between the Atlantic coast and the Pyrenees, Tosello said.
He would have had to move because he would have been left without animals to hunt if he had stayed in one place for too long, he explained.
Researchers will now work on an exact 3D replica of the shell to learn more about a small 0.4-inch-diameter perforation in its body, Tosello told CNN. They will also investigate how far the sound produced by the shell can travel.