Soundscapes in the past: Adding a new dimension to our archaeological picture of ancient cultures
Type
Journal
Authors
Category
Publication Year
2017
Publisher
The Conversation, Australia
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[ private ]
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Abstract
Picture an archaeological site, what comes to mind? Sandstone walls, standing in the desert heat? Stonehenge, watching over a grassy field?
When thinking about archaeological sites, we tend to conceive of them as dead silent – empty ruins left by past cultures. But this isn’t how the people who lived in and used these sites would have experienced them. Residents would have heard others speaking and laughing, babies crying, people working, dogs barking and music such as drumming. These sounds could be heard from close by, and perhaps coming from distant locations as well.
Putting sound back into the archaeological landscape is an important part of understanding how people lived, what they valued, how they shaped their identities and experienced the world and their place in it. This growing field is called acoustic archaeology, or archaeoacoustics. By considering the sounds heard by people moving through the landscape, we’re able to more fully understand their culture, and thus better relate to them as human beings.
We recently modeled an ancient soundscape at the landscape level for the first time. What can our ears tell us about the way the Anasazi, or Ancestral Puebloan, people lived in New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon more than a thousand years ago?
When thinking about archaeological sites, we tend to conceive of them as dead silent – empty ruins left by past cultures. But this isn’t how the people who lived in and used these sites would have experienced them. Residents would have heard others speaking and laughing, babies crying, people working, dogs barking and music such as drumming. These sounds could be heard from close by, and perhaps coming from distant locations as well.
Putting sound back into the archaeological landscape is an important part of understanding how people lived, what they valued, how they shaped their identities and experienced the world and their place in it. This growing field is called acoustic archaeology, or archaeoacoustics. By considering the sounds heard by people moving through the landscape, we’re able to more fully understand their culture, and thus better relate to them as human beings.
We recently modeled an ancient soundscape at the landscape level for the first time. What can our ears tell us about the way the Anasazi, or Ancestral Puebloan, people lived in New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon more than a thousand years ago?
Description
https://theconversation.com/soundscapes-in-the-past-adding-a-new-dimension-to-our-archaeological-picture-of-ancient-cultures-80861
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