Ancient rock art was meant to be heard as well as seen and now acoustic archaeologists are bringing the sounds of prehistoric rituals to life
... .. a remarkable discovery: that prehistoric rock art, created from 40,000 to 3,000 years ago, was meant to be heard as well as seen. “The oldest painted sites have this low, strange resonance, where if you sing, suddenly the cave sings back to you,” says Rupert Till at the University of Huddersfield, UK.... .. a seven-year study into the acoustic properties of rock art sites around the glob ... .. leaves little doubt that prehistoric artists deliberately painted in places where echoes, resonance and sound transmission created otherworldly sonic effects. “I was completely amazed,” says archaeologist ... .. “Before the paintings, there was barely any reverberation, but as soon as we reached the paintings, the sound changed immediately.”.. ... By studying the peculiar soundscapes in which ancient artworks are embedded, Díaz-Andreu, Till and other archaeoacoustic researchers are beginning to reconstruct the ways in which these ancient, multisensory illustrations amplified the potency of prehistoric rituals, storytelling and shamanic musical performance – and, perhaps, even altered listeners’ states of consciousness. ...