Significant evidence exists for the importance of organised sound in
prehistory. Research in this area has progressed for over 30 years, as
within the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) and
International Study Group for Music Archaeology (ISGMA).
A number of archaeological finds that are thought to be musical
instruments have been found in caves. Particularly well known are bone
flutes. The discovery of a fairly advanced example of an aerophone dated
to 40,000 BP emphasises the complex nature of such artefacts, even
during the Palaeolithic period, yet surviving artefacts are not the sole
method of examining prehistoric sounds.
Discussions with researchers at the universities of Valladolid and
Zaragoza in Spain led to a project exploring the relationships of
Palaeolithic cave art with sound, music and acoustics. Dr Rupert Till
(University of Huddersfield, UK) and Dr Bruno Fazenda (University of
Salford, UK), who had together previously explored the acoustics of
Stonehenge, visited caves in Asturias and Cantabria in the summer of
2012 to carry out a pilot study. Till, Fazenda, and Professor Chris
Scarre (Durham University, UK) carried out a fully funded research
project in 2013.
The acoustics within a cave are strikingly different from those
outside. Many activities in the cave would have made sound, whether
talking and moving, or grinding and preparing pigments for painting.
A high quality digital record made between 2004 and 2007 of the
imagery within Tito Bustillo cave (Spain) resulted in the discovery of
unknown decorated spaces, and a pit in the Gallery of the Anthropomorphs
which contained ochre and crushed bone, teeth and shell dated to around
33,000 years BP, suggesting a far greater age than previously thought
for at least some of the imagery.
The Songs of the Caves project thoroughly investigates the
acoustic environment of the Asturian cave of Tito Bustillo, as well as
four Cantabrian caves - La Garma, El Castillo, Las Chimeneas and La
Pasiega - examining the hypothetical relationship between the acoustic
environment and the placement of imagery in caves, and exploring such
acoustics experimentally. [...]
stonepages.com (B&W 3)
Discover more about it on songsofthecaves.wordpress.com website.
The next four films document a research trip in summer 2012 to
investigate the acoustics and sounds of caves that are part of the
Altamira world heritage site. The team explored the effectiveness of
musical instruments and acoustic test sounds inside the caves.
Vídeos YouTube por
Rupert Till añadidos a
Paleo Vídeos >
Prehistoria de España y Portugal > L.R.1.8 nº 17 a 20.
Actualización: Related audio:
Echoes in the Dark
Episode one of Noise: A Human History, a thirty-part series made in collaboration with the British Library Sound Archive.
What
do caves tell us about the mind and beliefs of Neolithic people? With
no scientific explanation to hand for the phenomenon of the echo, it was
natural to assume it was a spirit voice.
Certain echoes sounded
like the galloping hooves of beasts; others like the fluttering wings of
birds. These echoes appeared to come from the rocks themselves. They
moved, they were uncanny - all this hinting at a 'spirit world' within.
Professor
David Hendy from the University of Sussex visits the caves of
Arcy-sur-Cure in Burgundy with musicologist Iegor Reznikoff to listen to
evidence deep underground next to paintings of bison and birds.
bbc.co.uk (Clips) /
Full
Actualización 08-05-14:
Canciones de las cuevas /
Songs from the caves : Archaeology News from Past Horizons
El proyecto
"Canciones de las cuevas" tiene
como objetivo explorar la acústica de las cuevas prehistóricas con
pinturas del norte de España, a fin de establecer si se puede encontrar
una relación interna segura, entre el posicionamiento de los motivos
figurativos y los efectos sonoros. El sonido tiene el potencial de
proporcionar una información que no está disponible sólo estudiando las
propiedades visuales o materiales...