Welsh Journals

A Possible Bone Flute from Bacon Hole Cave, Gower. By J. V. S. MEGAW and H. S. GREEN Introduction (H. S. Green) The possible bone flute (above) which is the subject of this note was formerly in the J. B. Wale collection in Leicester City Museum. The only information known of the circumstances of discovery is that it was found at Bacon Hole Cave on the 29th June, 1949. The object was transferred to the National Museum of Wales in 1963 (accession number 63.78). It does not seem likely that the artefact can be related to any possible Palaeolithic occupation at Bacon Hole (Stringer, 1977), on account both of its "modern" condition as compared with the Pleistocene bones from the site and of its probable historic date suggested by Megaw below. Discussion (J. V. S. Megaw) A fragment of a bird long bone 1 from Bacon Hole cave seems a likely candidate for a simple musical instrument of the fipple or notched flute type as is known chiefly from historic contexts in north and western Europe including the British Isles (Megaw, 1960; 1968 esp. 335-9; Brade, 1975 2). The bone measures some 58 mm. in length and has two complete holes towards what remains of the distal end, their centres spaced about 10 mm. apart. The larger hole has a diameter of about 3 mm. and the