Buzz
For years, archaeology focused mainly on visual aspects, offering us a limited perspective on ancient civilizations. The emerging field of archaeoacoustics is expanding this view, allowing us to move beyond mere bones and stones to uncover a more profound, auditory story of how our ancestors experienced life. Consider it the soundtrack of prehistory. Some of these soundscapes may seem basic, but others are truly extraordinary.
10. Cividale Del Friuli Hypogeum
The Cividale del Friuli Hypogeum is an underground enigma located in Northern Italy, with its history still under investigation. Some scholars believe it served as a burial site or ancient prison. However, researchers in the field of archaeoacoustics suggest that its unique acoustics may hold the key, drawing comparisons to the more renowned Hal Saflieni Hypogeum in Malta.
The Cividale del Friuli Hypogeum features three subterranean levels, carved from solid rock. Based on the design of the chambers, researchers speculate that the acoustics were intentionally enhanced with structural elements to create a mystical ambiance during religious rituals, including prayer and song. Their hypothesis is that these rituals were likely centered around the worship of a Mother Goddess.
To investigate this, scientists aimed to explore whether human exposure to specific sound frequencies in the chambers of the hypogeum could induce an altered state of consciousness without the need for chemical substances, a phenomenon known as the resonance effect. Instead of simply asking participants about their experiences while chanting or listening to music in the hypogeum, the researchers also analyzed more objective data, including EEG readings and a TRV image analyzer that tracks human vibrations.
The findings revealed that a low-pitched male voice, whether praying or singing, produced eerie reverberations that altered the brain activity of most listeners. Some participants experienced effects after as little as eight minutes of chanting. On occasion, they reported seeing visions or sensing the sound in their bones, rather than consciously hearing it. Infrasound, which is undetectable by the human ear, can evoke sensations of fear or awe when played at high volumes.
For the phenomenon to occur, sound waves need to fall within a frequency range of 90Hz to 120Hz. However, individuals respond differently to various frequencies within this range. This may explain why the hypogeum’s creators tuned each chamber to a distinct frequency, ensuring that everyone could experience the mystical, otherworldly atmosphere of the rituals.
Interestingly, a higher-pitched female voice did not produce these effects, seemingly discrediting the Mother Goddess hypothesis—until researchers found that a priestess could achieve the resonance effect by playing a drum at the correct rhythm and location within the hypogeum.
9. Ringing Rocks Park
Hidden within the forested expanse of the 128-acre Ringing Rocks Park in Pennsylvania is a unique open area where boulders rise to 3 meters (10 ft). These gray and white stones stand in striking contrast to the surrounding green foliage, positioned at the top of a hill as if they were dropped from the sky. Aside from some lichen, the space is remarkably free of vegetation, and animals tend to avoid the area. When struck with a hammer or smaller rock, about one-third of the boulders, known as 'live rocks,' resonate with sounds like bells or wind chimes.
The boulders, thought to be over 200 million years old, are composed of diabase, a type of volcanic rock that has cooled over time. Some researchers believe that the freeze-thaw cycles caused by nearby glaciers are responsible for breaking the diabase into the boulders we see today.
In 1965, geologist Richard Faas from Lafayette College conducted tests on the rocks’ acoustics in his laboratory. Upon being struck, most of the rocks produced a series of tones that fell below the frequencies audible to humans. The remaining rocks emitted various low tones that interacted, generating higher-pitched, audible frequencies. To this day, neither Faas nor any other researcher has determined the precise physical mechanism behind the rocks' ability to produce sound.
The ringing rocks feature prominently in Native American mythology. One story, 'The Legend of the Ringing Rocks,' explains the origin of the boulders' musical qualities. In the tale, two young lovers from rival tribes would meet by moonlight at the Gray Rocks. One night, the warrior Atchokatha waited on Signal Rock, with his arms outstretched, as his beloved Namechi approached. Tragically, one of Namechi's people shot Atchokatha with an arrow. As Namechi reached him, Atchokatha embraced her, only for a second arrow, shot by his own brother, to kill her. As the two tribes clashed around the young lovers, Atchokatha’s tomahawk struck Signal Rock with a sound resembling a bell’s chime, startling the combatants. As the lovers died, music rose from the rocks. The tribes believed that Namechi's death had caused the rocks to ring, and they revered them from that moment onward.
8. Kupgal Hill
In the Bellary District of Karnataka, located in Southern India, there is a vast granite hill scattered with rock gongs and ancient petroglyphs. The rock gongs are boulders with grooves that, when struck with a smaller rock, produce deep, gong-like sounds, earning them the local nickname 'musical stones.'
The petroglyphs, which date back to the Neolithic period of the Stone Age, depict southern India's long-horned, humpbacked cattle, alongside human figures. Some of these images show men holding bows and arrows, while others depict them in chains. These scenes seem to illustrate either the herding or stealing of cattle. It is believed that both the petroglyphs and the rock gongs were created for ritualistic purposes, likely to communicate with the supernatural world. One theory suggests that the upland valley where most of the rock gongs are found functioned as a prehistoric auditorium, amplifying sounds at specific points.
Kupgal Hill was first recorded in 1892, but it was subsequently lost to history until researchers rediscovered it around 2004. Unfortunately, some of the rock art in the area has already been destroyed due to granite mining.
7. Temple Of Kukulkan
In the heart of the ancient ruins of Chichen Itza, the Mayan city, stands the magnificent Temple of Kukulkan, also known as El Castillo. This remarkable step pyramid made of limestone rises to a height of 30 meters (98 ft), with each side of the base stretching 55 meters (180 ft). Kukulkan, whose name means 'feathered serpent,' was a revered Mayan deity.
From a scientific perspective, the temple acts as a solar calendar. Each of the pyramid’s four sides features a staircase with 91 steps, leading to a common platform that houses the square Upper Temple at the top. This gives a total of 365 steps, one for each day of the year. Additionally, the stairways divide the pyramid into nine tiers, creating 18 segments, corresponding to the number of months in the Mayan calendar. On the equinoxes, the setting sun casts a shadow that appears as a serpent’s tail slithering down the northern stairway, connecting to a stone carving of Kukulkan’s head at the bottom.
For the Maya, the Temple of Kukulkan symbolized a sacred mountain, a powerful point that connected the earthly realm to the Otherworld. The Maya constructed successive temples atop the old ones, believing that this layering accumulated sacred energy. Through complex rituals, they made it easier for gods and ancestors to cross into the world of the living.
In many ancient cultures, spirits were believed to communicate through echoes, and the Maya were no different. Acoustic engineer David Lubman discovered that if you clap your hands at the base of the pyramid, the sound bounces back as the chirped echo of the sacred quetzal bird. This bird was thought to be the messenger of the Mayan gods. Lubman theorizes that priests at the temple would clap to the gathered crowds, and when the crowds clapped in return, the pyramid would resonate with the quetzal's call.
The temple has at least two other remarkable acoustic features. When you shout facing the base of the pyramid, the echo returns as a piercing shriek. Additionally, someone speaking normally from the top step of the pyramid can be heard from a significant distance by people standing at the base.
6. Maeshowe
Constructed around 2700 B.C. on the Scottish island of Orkney, Maeshowe stands as one of the most remarkable surviving structures from prehistoric Europe. This chambered cairn, essentially a stone mound over a mausoleum, is thought to have served as the focal point for community rituals that likely included music, chanting, and dancing.
Originally, Maeshowe was a conical stone edifice approximately 11 meters (36 feet) tall and 30 meters (100 feet) wide. Inside, there was a central chamber, three side chambers, and an elongated entrance passage. The entrance is notably aligned so that, during midwinter—the darkest period of the year—the setting sun shines directly into the central chamber for several days.
However, the acoustics might be Maeshowe's most striking feature. Many ancient cultures believed that altering one's state of consciousness was essential to communicating with the spirit world. Sound was one of the key methods for achieving this, and Maeshowe is capable of generating some extraordinary acoustic phenomena.
In addition to the echoes bouncing off the stone walls, an ethereal effect could be produced by standing waves. This phenomenon occurred when sound waves either cancelled each other out or merged to amplify the sound. At Maeshowe, a chanter or drummer might experience a strange silence around them while their sounds reverberated through the cairn’s side chambers. To the people of that time, this could have seemed like a supernatural occurrence from the spirit world, particularly when the source of the sound was unclear. Standing waves might also cause speech to sound distorted.
However, infrasound—sound beneath the threshold of human hearing—was likely the true spectacle in these ancient rituals. Infrasound may have induced changes in the participants’ mental states, provoking uncomfortable physical or psychological effects such as dizziness, headaches, a sensation of floating, nausea, or an increased heart rate.
This phenomenon is the result of Helmholtz resonance, the same effect produced by blowing across the top of a glass bottle. At Maeshowe, the required frequency to produce this effect was 2Hz. While humans couldn’t hear such a low frequency, they might still experience a sense of disorientation from it. Activities like drumming or even walking inside the cairn could generate this 2Hz frequency.
While it remains uncertain whether the ancients intentionally used Maeshowe's acoustic properties, some researchers believe it's highly probable that they did.
5. Mazinaw Rock
Over a thousand years ago, the ancestors of the Algonkian people painted 295 pictographs, or rock paintings, along the base of Mazinaw Rock, a 30-meter-high (100 ft) cliff by the lake in Ontario’s Bon Echo Provincial Park. The name “Mazinaw” is thought to derive from the Algonkian language, meaning “pictures in the water,” while “echo” in Bon Echo refers directly to the cliff’s face at Mazinaw Rock.
The pictographs are concentrated along the lower part of the cliff, where the lake meets the rock, amplifying the incredible echoes. This location wasn’t easily accessible—the lower water level at the time would have required the artists to stand in their canoes, battling a strong current. According to native legends, the spot where the cliff rises from the water is believed to be a favorite haunt of manitous, or spirits. Some archaeologists speculate that the Native Americans might have thought these echoes were the voices of manitous calling to them through the rock.
As per Algonkian legend, a shaman in a trance could pass through the cliff to offer gifts to the manitous in exchange for supernatural healing powers, known as “rock medicine.” However, if the shaman made a mistake, his spirit would become trapped within the cliff, leading to death or madness in the real world. These beliefs transformed the cliff into a sacred portal to the spirit world. The Algonkians also believed that the manitous communicated with their shamans through dream visions at these echoing sites. If a shaman received such a vision, he would depict it on the rock using red ochre, a sacred mineral thought to breathe life into the images.
4. Stonehenge
Around 2500 B.C., the creators of Stonehenge transported massive bluestones from the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire, Wales, approximately 386 kilometers (240 miles) to construct the inner circle of the iconic megalithic monument in Wiltshire, England. This monumental task raises the question—why did they go to such effort? Some archaeologists speculate that the builders were drawn to the musical properties of the stones. Bluestones, a form of volcanic rock known as dolerite, may produce metallic sounds resembling gongs, bells, or tin drums when struck.
Although no written records have been found, indentations on the bluestones suggest they were utilized to produce sound. The presence of ringing stones and the absence of waste during excavations have led some archaeologists to hypothesize that Stonehenge served as a venue for religious ceremonies. If the sound of these resonant stones was paired with hallucinogenic mushrooms—still abundant in the region—ancient practitioners may have experienced visions of spirits dancing before their eyes. Furthermore, it’s possible that the acoustics of the stones helped induce Alpha rhythms in the brain, promoting a trance-like state of consciousness essential for ancient religious practices. What may seem like a simple auditory effect today would have been awe-inspiring in prehistoric times.
3. Chavin De Huantar
Around three thousand years ago, the ancient inhabitants of Chavin de Huantar in the Peruvian Andes engaged in ritual practices that would make the festival-goers at Woodstock appear tame in comparison. Despite lacking a written language, these pre-Incan people constructed an expansive stone temple complex 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Lima. Priests at the site are believed to have used eerie sounds and psychotropic substances to mesmerize, disorient, and potentially control their followers. The Gallery of the Labyrinths, a 0.8-kilometer (0.5-mile) network of underground echo chambers, passageways, and drains, is connected by air ducts under the main gathering space.
In addition to its intricate floor plan, acoustic tricks were likely employed to astound and captivate visitors. Priests could direct the flow of nearby streams through canals in the complex to replicate the growls of snarling jaguars. Human voices and the calls of conch shells, called pututus, resonated through the passageways in a complex web of sound—sometimes silent, sometimes amplified and reverberating off the walls, and at other times producing disorienting frequencies that could make visitors feel as if their thoughts were rattling inside their heads. The labyrinth also allowed sunlight to filter through ducts, casting eerie and distorted shadows on the stones. Researchers believe that the entire experience was so overwhelming and otherworldly that visitors would have been completely mesmerized by the priests’ power.
To intensify these effects, evidence suggests that priests administered hallucinogenic substances, including mescaline derived from the native San Pedro cactus. Stone carvings within the maze depict individuals under the influence of these substances, transforming into animal-like deities with wide, upturned eyes and mucus flowing from their noses, a common reaction when consuming cactus-based drugs.
One passage in the complex leads from a sunken outdoor plaza deep within the labyrinth to the mouth of the Lanzon, a 4.5-meter (15 ft) statue representing the principal deity of the Chavin culture. Sounds traveling through the duct could give the illusion that the statue itself was speaking.
John Rick, a researcher from Stanford University, believes that the priests at Chavin de Huantar used a combination of terrifying special effects involving sound, light, and psychotropic substances to dominate visitors, turn them into devoted followers, and shift the Chavin society from a democratic system to a more hierarchical one led by the priests.
2. The Animal Master’s House
The Animal Master’s House, also known as Yahwera’s House, is a towering limestone monolith standing about 13 meters (43 ft) tall, located near Caliente in California’s Back Canyon area. The Kawaiisu, a Native American tribe with a long history in the region, view the monolith and its depiction of Yahwera as a gateway to the underworld he reigns over.
The painting on the rock shows Yahwera as an animal-human hybrid figure, emerging from the stone surface. Alongside him is a large serpent, guarding the entrance to the underworld. The real magic of this place, however, lies in its acoustics. Echoes bounce off the limestone, mimicking the sounds of deer hooves or voices seemingly calling from within the rock.
In Kawaiisu lore, Yahwera is typically depicted as an androgynous hawk. He is believed to restore life to slain animals, bringing their spirits back into the world. He can also grant good fortune to hunters or provide healing songs to the ailing. However, to hear Yahwera is often seen as an ominous sign, as contact with him was considered dangerous. It was primarily those in distress who would seek him out.
The legends surrounding Yahwera share a few key patterns. A person in need of healing or a hunter searching for fortune travels to Yahwera’s House, where they hear the voices of supernatural beings, including spirits of deer that have passed away in our world but live on in the spirit realm. They then navigate through a portal leading to the underworld where these spirits dwell.
Visitors to the underworld can gain good luck in hunting by retrieving weapons from the walls of this realm. If the visitor is ill, they will eventually encounter Yahwera, who provides food that replenishes itself with every bite. Once the person can no longer eat, they are offered a magical song to heal. The journey back to the world above is always a difficult one, with magical portals that are not easily found. If Yahwera warns the visitor not to speak of their experience, death will follow if the warning is ignored.
For the Kawaiisu people, whose numbers are dwindling, preserving these sacred places and their stories is of utmost importance. Though many of their traditions have been lost, they are determined to ensure the survival of their culture.
1. Cup-Marked Ringing Stones
In Sweden, the term for ringing stones is 'klangsten.' During the transition from the late Stone Age to the Iron Age, many of these stones were etched with small depressions, known as cup marks. These marks typically measure between 3 to 10 centimeters (1 to 4 inches) in diameter and can be as deep as 5 centimeters (2 inches).
In Sweden, cup marks are commonly called 'alvkvarnar,' a term that translates to 'elf windmills.' Folklore offers some insights into the purpose of these markings. For example, it is believed that the Swedes may have used them as offerings to elves to ensure a bountiful harvest. During fertility rituals, Swedish men might have ejaculated into the cup marks, and in some traditions, the marks were used as vessels for blood, butter, coins, and other items for offerings—possibly tied to fertility or death rites. After cremation, the Swedes might have used cup marks to grind the bones of the deceased to enrich the soil. Additionally, rainwater collected in the marks was thought to have medicinal properties, such as treating warts. Some shamans may have even crafted a 'shaman drum' using these cup marks. In some beliefs, the cup marks were seen as symbols of the union between the earth goddess and the heavenly god.
Many Swedes also believed that the stones rang because they hid treasures, such as gold or silver, beneath or within them. As these ringing stones were often positioned along trade routes, some scholars believe that travelers would use them to seek good fortune during their journeys. Another theory suggests that the Swedes used the cup marks to communicate with the spirits of their ancestors or with entities residing within the stones. One particular ringing stone, known as 'Sangelstainen,' is thought to have served as a sacrificial altar.
