The Divje Babe Flute is a cave bear femur pierced by spaced holes that was found in 1995 at the Divje Babe archeological park located near Cerkno in northwestern Slovenia, by Slovenian archeologist Ivan Turk. Elaborate studies have proven that it was made by Neanderthals as a form of musical instrument, its hole spacing and alignment leading to its being labeled a “Neanderthal flute”, and very possible the world’s oldest known musical instrument, scientifically dated to be around 60.000 years old. The artifact remains on prominent public display in the National Museum of Slovenia in Ljubljana.
In a 2011 article, Matija Turk published the results of the collaboration with Katinka’s father Ljuben Dimkaroski, an academic musician who had made replicas of the artifact. The authors argue that the instrument encompassed a range of two and a half octaves, which can be extended to three octaves by overblowing. Dimkaroski created over 300 wooden and bone replicas of the flute and experimented with them. The replicas were made from femurs of juvenile brown bears provided by the Hunters Association of Slovenia, but also of calf, goat, pig, roe and red deer bones. In the end, he concentrated on making and playing a replica made on a femur of a juvenile cave bear from Divje Babe I Cave, to come as close as possible to the dimensions of the original. Ljuben Dimkaroski named the flute the Tidldibab.
Katinka Dimkaroska is continuing the work of the late Ljuben Dimkaroski and is researching the musical and cultural aspects of the flute, where Matija Turk, son of Ivan Turk, is the main reference for the archeological side of the flute. Together with Italian Giuliano Bastiani, who did research on the making of of the flute, they give lectures on all aspects of the unique artifact. Katinka Dimkaroska plays the Tidldibab as solo artist and in different formations such as 4HOMO.
