Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:27:30.419Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Architecture and sound: an acoustic analysis of megalithic monuments in prehistoric Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Aaron Watson  and
David Keating
Aaron Watson
Affiliation:
Watson, Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AA, England, [email protected]
David Keating
Affiliation:
Department of Cybernetics, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AY, England, [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Prehistoric monuments in Britain are often dominant features in the landscape, and archaeological theory has tended to consider the visual and spatial influences of their architecture upon peoples' movement and perception. The articulation of sound within these structures has not been widely discussed, despite evidence which suggests that many monuments provided settings for gatherings of people. This possibility was explored at two contrasting sites in Scotland, a recumbent stone circle and a passage-grave, revealing that the elemental acoustic properties inherent in each may have literally orchestrated encounters with the stones.

Keywords

soundmegalithsprehistoric monumentsCamster Roundexperimental archaeologyEaster AquorthiesCaithness
Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 73 , Issue 280 , June 1999 , pp. 325 - 336
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1999

References

Bergh, S. 1995. Landscape of the monuments: a study of the passage tombs in the C’il Irra region, Co. Sligo, Ireland. Stockholm: Riksantikvarieämbetet Arkeologiska Undersbkniger, Skrifter nr 6.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 1998. Ruined buildings, ruined stones: enclosures, tombs and natural places in the Neolithic of south-west England, World Archaeology 30: 13–22.Google Scholar
Broner, N. 1978. The effects of low frequency noise on people — a review, Journal of Sound and Vibration 58: 483–500.Google Scholar
Burl, A. 1988. Coves: structural enigmas of the Neolithic, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 82: 1–18.Google Scholar
Dams, L. 1984. Preliminary findings at the ‘Organ’ Sanctuary in the cave of Nerja, Malaga, Spain, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 3: 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, J.L. & Henshall, A.S.. 1991. The chambered cairns of Caithness. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Dayton, L. 1992. Rock art evokes beastly echoes of the past, New Scientist 28 November: 14.Google Scholar
Devereux, P. & Jahn, R.G.. 1996. Preliminary investigations and cognitive considerations of the acoustical resonances of selected archaeological sites, Antiquity 70: 665–6.Google Scholar
Eogan, G. 1986. Knowth and the passage-tombs of Ireland. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Evans, M.J. 1976. Physiological and psychological effects of infrasound at moderate intensities, in Tempest, W. (ed.). Infrasound and low frequency vibration: 97–113. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Huntington, R. & Metcalf, P.. 1991. Celebrations of death: the anthropology of mortuary ritual. New York (NY): Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, A. 1968. Sound and ritual, Man 3: 293–9.Google Scholar
Lund, C. 1981. The archaeomusicology of Scandinavia, World Archaeology 12: 246–65.Google Scholar
Lynch, F. 1973. The use of the passage in certain passage graves as a means of communication rather than access, in Daniel, G. & Kæsrum, P. (ed.), Megalithic graves and ritual: 147–61. Copenhagen: Jutland Archaeological Society. Publication 11.Google Scholar
Lynch, F. 1998. Colour in prehistoric architecture, in Gibson, A. & Simpson, D. (ed.), Prehistoric ritual and religion: 62–7. Stroud: Sutton Publishing.Google Scholar
Megaw, J.V.S. 1960. Penny whistles and prehistory, Antiquity 34: 6–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Megaw, J.V.S. 1968. Problems and non-problems in palaeo-organology: a musical miscellany, in Coles, J.M. & Simpson, D.D.A. (ed.), Studies in ancient Europe: 333–58. Leicester: Leicester University Press.Google Scholar
Megaw, J.V.S. 1984. The bone flute, in Britnell, W.J. & Savory, H.N. (ed.), Gwernvale and Penywyrlod: two Neolithic long cairns in the Black Mountains of Brecknock: 27–8. Bangor: Cambrian Archaeological Association. Cambrian Archaeological Monograph 2.Google Scholar
Morse, P.M. & Ingard, K.U.. 1980. Theoretical acoustics. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Needham, R. 1967. Percussion and transition, Man 2: 606–14.Google Scholar
Neher, A. 1962. A physiological explanation of unusual behaviour in ceremonies involving drums, Human Biology 34: 151–60.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, D.S. & Reims, S.. 1985. Some individual differences in human response to infrasound. Toronto: University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies. Report 282.Google Scholar
Parker Pearson, M. & Ramilisonina, . 1998. Stonehenge for the ancestors: the stones pass on the message, Antiquity 72: 308–26.Google Scholar
Purser, J. 1997. The Kilmartin sessions: the sounds of ancient Scotland. Compact disc produced by the Kilmartin House Trust, Argyll: KHT CD1.Google Scholar
Rayleigh, J.W.S. 1945. The theory of sound. New York (NY): Dover Publications.Google Scholar
Reznikoff, I. & Dauvois, M.. 1988. La dimension sonore des grottes ornées, Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française 85: 238–46.Google Scholar
Richards, C. 1996. Monuments as landscape: creating the centre of the world in late Neolithic Orkney, World Archaeology 28: 190–208.Google Scholar
Ruggles, C.L.N. 1984. Megalithic astronomy: a new archaeological and statistical study of 300 western Scottish sites. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. British series 123.Google Scholar
Scarre, C. 1989. Painting by resonance, Nature 338: 382.Google Scholar
Shepherd, I. 1987. The early peoples, in Omand, D. (ed.), The Grampian people: 119–30. Golspie: The Northern Times.Google Scholar
Thom, A., Thom, A.S. & Burl, A.. 1980. Megalithic rings: plans and data for 229 monuments in Britain. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. British series 81.Google Scholar
Turner, J.D. & Pretlove, A.J.. 1991. Acoustics for engineers. Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Tuzin, D. 1984. Miraculous voices: the auditory experience of numinous objects, Current Anthropology 25: 579–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, A.B. & Woodward, P.J.. 1996. The topography of some barrow cemeteries in Bronze Age Wessex, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 62: 275–91.Google Scholar