A large conch shell that had been languishing in a museum for decades has been revealed as the oldest known seashell instrument after archaeologists examined it more closely and realized belatedly what they’d been looking at.
Listen to The Haunting Sound of a Conch Horn Played For The First Time in 17,000 Years
AFP
11 FEBRUARY 2021
After more than 17,000 years of silence and decades forgotten in a French museum, a shell fashioned into a horn by our prehistoric ancestors has been played again as a result of new research published Wednesday.
Scientists believe the ancient conch, from a species of large sea snail still present in the Atlantic and North Sea, is the oldest wind instrument of its type yet found.
The shell was unearthed in 1931 at an archaeological dig in the Pyrenees near the mouth of the Marsoulas Cave, whose walls are painted with the artwork of Magdalenian people living there at the end of the last ice age.
The conch shell was discovered in 1931 in Marsoulas Cave in the French Pyrenees. Back then, researchers assumed it was used as a ceremonial cup and it has spent 90.
The sound of Palaeolithic music
February 12, 2021CNRS
Although large conch-shaped shells still serve as musical instruments in various regions of the Pacific and Caribbean, their use in the Palaeolithic had never been established. For the first time, scientists have produced a sound from the oldest conch horn ever found in Europe. The object, which dates back 18,000 years, was discovered in the painted cave of Marsoulas in the French Pyrenees mountain range.
Lying unnoticed for years in the collections of Toulouse’s Museum of Natural History, in southwestern France, a hidden treasure has finally given up its secrets. The true purpose of the 30-centimetre-long shell, described as a “water pitcher” when it was discovered in 1931 at the entrance to the Marsoulas painted cave in the Pyrenees, was revealed by archaeologists, whose findings have been published in the journal Science1. Far from being used as a container, the conch belonging to the species Charonia lampas – a moll
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