Songs of the Stones: An Investigation into the Acoustic History and Culture of Stonehenge

Abstract

This paper is an investigation into the acoustic culture of Stonehenge. It begins by discussing the importance of music and sound in the life of an aural/oral culture, and its importance as ritual technology. It goes on to provide background about the site in prehistory and in popular culture. Thomas Hardy's writing about Stonehenge raises the question of whether there are significant acoustic features at the site. There is then a study of the acoustics of Stonehenge, beginning with existing work on the subject and a theoretical consideration. It goes on to study the acoustics of a full size replica and a digital model before discussing the results of field tests in the stone circle itself. It concludes that the sonic features of Stonehenge were noticeable and significant, and that it is likely that they were a part of the ritual culture of the site.

Sound Archaeology: A Study of the Acoustics of Three World Heritage Sites, Spanish Prehistoric Painted Caves, Stonehenge, and Paphos Theatre

“…Research on the acoustics of Stonehenge was inspired by a pilot study by Aaron Watson [33,34], which showed that there were acoustic effects present at the present-day monument. Further study by the author [35,36] analysed the acoustics present in the final arrangement of the original complete monument, pointing out low frequency resonances, echoes, and reverberation. Field studies by the author with the acoustics researcher Bruno Fazenda [37,38], analysed the Maryhill Monument, a full-size concrete Stonehenge model in the United States, which has an approximately similar design.…”

“…The acoustics of the later (final) modelled arrangement of the site, Stonehenge C, dated c.2200 BC, has been examined in earlier publications by this author and Fazenda [35][36][37][38]. Those papers used various theoretical approaches to explore the acoustics of the site, as well as acoustic field tests at a full-size concrete replica that has a design based on Stonehenge, the Maryhill Monument in Washington State, USA.…”

Engineering eHeritage—A New Approach for Study of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Case Study: The Analysis of the Noise Produced by the Dacian Dracon

“…Another example would be the technique of archaeoacoustics, which represents a complex research subject that includes fields such as ethnomusicology, archaeology, engineering, acoustics, modeling, etc. As part of archaeoacoustics, acoustic heritage allows the assessment and recovery of cultural heritage, such as ancient buildings [6,[31][32][33] or musical instruments [34,35].…”

The Acoustic and Auditory Contexts of Human Behavior

“…A number of studies have already undertaken pioneering research by seeking to characterize the acoustics of caves, rock shelters, monuments, and built places. These studies have suggested that environmental, structural, and activity-based constraints on sound-at least in respect to presumably "atypical" sonic environments-were valued and exploited in the past (e.g., Bruchez 2007;Dams 1984;Devereux and Jahn 1996;Helmer and Chicoine 2013;Lawson et al 1998;Ouzman 2001;Rainbird 2002;Reznikoff 2008;Till 2011;Waller 2006;Watson and Keating 1999). However, there has been a tendency to focus on the measurement of present-day acoustics of archaeological sites, without taking into account crucial variables, including the physical and functional changes of spaces throughout time that accordingly affect sound propagation and perception; moreover, the acoustical features of the surrounding everyday environments that would have conditioned contemporaneous human aural sensitivities and thus shaped their responses to sounds in these-often acoustically unusual-archaeological sites have not been explored.…”