The spacing of the four holes on a fragment of a bone flute excavated at a Neanderthal campsite is just what is required to play the third through sixth notes of the diatonic scale-the seven-note musical scale used in much of Western music since the Renaissance. Musicologists therefore hypothesize that the diatonic musical scale was developed and used thousands of years before it was adopted by Western musicians.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the hypothesis?

• ABone flutes were probably the only musical instrument made by Neanderthals.  
• BNo musical instrument that is known to have used a diatonic scale is of an earlier date than the flute found at the Neanderthal campsite.  
• CThe flute was made from a cave-bear bone and the campsite at which the flute fragment was excavated was in a cave that also contained skeletal remains of cave bears.  
• DFlutes are the simplest wind instrument that can be constructed to allow playing a diatonic scale.  
• EThe cave-bear leg bone used to make the Neanderthal flute would have been long enough to make a flute capable of playing a complete diatonic scale.