Archaeoacoustics

Iegor Reznikoff and Michel Dauvois studied the prehistoric painted caves of France, and found links between the artworks' positioning and acoustic effects.

[22][19] Scientific research led since 1998 suggests that the Kukulkan pyramid in Chichen Itza mimics the chirping sound of the quetzal bird when humans clap their hands around it.

In the past twenty years, many researchers have undertaken both seminal work in developing methods to identify, conserve, or recreate aspects of historical acoustic environments,[2][3][31] as well as case studies at relevant heritage sites.

[34] Based in the US, the OTS Foundation has conducted several international conferences specifically on archaeoacoustics, with a focus on the human experience of sound in ancient ritual and ceremonial spaces.

The published papers represent a broader multidisciplinary study and include input from the realms of archaeology, architecture, acoustic engineering, rock art, and psycho-acoustics, as well as reports of field work from Gobekli Tepe and Southern Turkey, Malta, and elsewhere around the world.

[35] Prior to the establishment of archaeoacoustics as a formal area of study, the possibility of unintentionally recorded sound contained in ancient artifacts held great interest for some theorists.

In 1902, Charles Sanders Peirce expressed this idea when he wrote: "Give science only a hundred more centuries of increase in geometrical progression, and she may be expected to find that the sound waves of Aristotle's voice have somehow recorded themselves.

Once the surface is dry, it may be played back.Jones subsequently received a letter from Richard G. Woodbridge III, claiming to have already been working on the idea and stating that he had sent a paper on the subject to the journal Nature.

He then described his experiments with making clay pots and oil paintings from which sound could then be replayed, using a conventional record player cartridge connected directly to a set of headphones.