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Prehistoric Acoustics & Megalithic Noises

staticgirl

Abominable Snowman
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
989
I can't find a general thread that really covers this although it's been discussed in the Chirping Pyramid thread and Vibrating Stones at Stonehenge thread.

An online friend visited the chapel at Glanusk, in Wales so I popped into his Flickr account to look at the photos. The chapel seems to have been plonked on top of a stone circle, like they sometimes are, and he wrote underneath one picture (posted with permission):
"Amazing but this stone humms! in one direction only as I passed by I heard quite clearly a humming sound...."
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33928953@N ... 287837780/

I love this subject. I am fascinated by the idea that stones may have been selected for acoustic properties or the sounds that stones made accidentally have become part of their power and magic.

This is an interesting blog about the investigation of Stonehenge's acoustic properties: http://soundsofstonehenge.wordpress.com/conclusions/

It says
Standard measures of acoustics such as envelopment, clarity and definition, as well as speech intelligibility, are in some positions at Stonehenge better than the equivalent values for the Vienna Concert Hall...

Anyway I thought you'd like to look at the photo and next time you pass that way you could test to see the stone hummed again!

Any other experiences to relate?
 
No personal experiences (would love to hear this for myself!) but some related articles:

This marriage of architecture and sound was studied at two megalithic sites by A. Watson and D. Keating. Since we have previously attended to the acoustics of stone chambers, we will bypass their work on the huge chambered cairn called Camster Round and focus on the recumbent stone circle (RSC) called Easter Aquorthies near Aberdeen, Scotland…. Measurements confirmed the focussing the sounds within the ring but did not record the subtle reverberations detected by humans.... It seems that Easter Aquorthies was designed deliberately to enhance the acoustical and visual effects experienced by an audience within the ring.
link
Rudimentary acoustical measurements performed inside six diverse Neolithic and Iron Age structures revealed that each sustained a strong resonance at a frequency between 95 and 120 Hz (wavelength about 3m)….
In some cases, internal and exterior rock drawings resembled these acoustical patterns. Since the resonant frequencies are well within the adult male voice range, one may speculate that some forms of human chanting, enhanced by the cavity resonance, were invoked for ritual purpose.
link
A fascinating article in Pour la Science, has described how ancient paintings in some of Europe's famous decorated caves were placed where sound resonated. To illustrate, examine the accompanying illustration of the north wall of the Jeannel Gallery of Portel Cave, in Arlege. The long, looping dotted line indicates the amplitude of resonating sound at a frequency of 95 Hertz, as the long gallery behaves like a giant wind instrument.
link

Side note: Damn! Who's going to take up William Corliss's work?
 
The 7,500 year-old Armenian megalithic site Karahunj (or Carahunge) is named after the Armenian words for singing and stones.
Several of the stones have holes in them, resulting in eery whistling sounds when the wind is strong enough.
The weird sounds may have been deliberately engineered or could just be a by-product of the astronomically aligned sighting holes.

stones1.png
stones2.png
stones3.png


There are also some strange petroglyphs nearby of large-headed and large-eyed entities, accompanied by floating disks, which some people believe depict ancient aliens:

stones4.png


With Armenia's tourism industry really beginning to take off, this should be of interest to the Fortean traveller and could well feature on my bucket list before too long.

http://armeniapedia.org/wiki/Karahunj
 
The "Oracle Chamber" in Malta's Hypogeum is another good example of remarkable prehistoric acoustics.
When I visited it around 8 years ago, I felt a bit too self-conscious to really put it to the test, but muttered a slightly subdued "om" in front of the oracle hole.
Not sure I can quite corroborate the claim that any sound is "magnified a hundredfold and is audible throughout the entire structure" but it did feel a bit weird.

malta.png


The second link below is an article speculating that some ancient buildings - including the Hypogeum, were designed to create healing vibes triggered by sound.

https://www.ancient-origins.net/new...ts-unravel-sound-effects-malta-s-hypogeum-hal

https://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/healing-sound-ancient-temples-111hz-006749
 
Current link to the Chirping Pyramid thread as in the OP.

Funnily enough, I heard this chirping effect (again) at Tikal, Guatemala, earlier this year, stood more-or-less equidistantly between Temples I and II in the Great Plaza.
I remember hearing such a chirping effect when I was a child. Running about in the school quadrangle, with buildings on all sides, would make my footsteps echo with a chirping sound added. It was probably caused by multiple echoes converging at slightly different times.
 
Rocky resonances in Devil's Church.

The national park of Koli in eastern Finland is home to a famous, 34-meter-long crevice cave known as Pirunkirkko, or Devil's Church in English. In folklore, this crevice cave was known as a place where local sages would meet to contact the spirit world. Even today, the place is visited by practitioners of shamanism, who organize drumming sessions in the cave.

A new article in Open Archaeology by Riitta Rainio, a researcher of archaeology at the University of Helsinki, and Elina Hytönen-Ng, a researcher of cultural studies at the University of Eastern Finland, investigates the acoustics of the Devil's Church and explores whether the acoustic properties of the cave could explain the beliefs associated with it, and why it was chosen as a place for activities and rituals involving sound.

The researchers found that the Devil's Church houses a distinct resonance phenomenon that amplifies and lengthens sound at a specific frequency. This phenomenon may have significantly impacted the beliefs and experiences associated with the cave.

The researchers reviewed historical archives showing that several known sages and healers operated in the Koli area. The most famous of the sages was a man known as Kinolainen, sometimes also referred to as Tossavainen, who used the Devil's Church for magical rituals.

"According to folklore, Kinolainen would take his patients to the 'church' to talk with the Devil about the causes and cures of their ailments. This kind of a healing ritual often included loud yelling, stomping, shooting and banging," Rainio says, summarizing traditional records.

Hytönen-Ng also interviewed and observed a modern-day practitioner of shamanism who uses the Devil's Church for rituals. According to the practitioner, there is a special energy in the cave, creating a strong connection to the surrounding nature and to one's own roots.

"The practitioner told in the interview that drumming sessions especially at the back of the cave have opened up 'new horizons.'"

According to Rainio, acoustic measurements conducted in the corridor-like, smooth-walled back of the cave show a strong resonance phenomenon. The phenomenon is caused by a standing wave between the smooth parallel walls, generating a tone at the natural frequency of the cave, 231 Hz, that stays audible for around one second after sharp impulses, such as clapping, drumming or loud bangs.

Tones vocalized in the cave near the 231 Hz frequency are amplified and lengthened by the cave.

"We recorded the shamanic practitioner and found that they repeatedly vocalized tones at 231 Hz, which were then amplified by the cave at its natural frequency."

https://phys.org/news/2023-11-witchcraft-devil-church-koli-based.html
 
Rocky resonances in Devil's Church.

The national park of Koli in eastern Finland is home to a famous, 34-meter-long crevice cave known as Pirunkirkko, or Devil's Church in English. In folklore, this crevice cave was known as a place where local sages would meet to contact the spirit world. Even today, the place is visited by practitioners of shamanism, who organize drumming sessions in the cave.

A new article in Open Archaeology by Riitta Rainio, a researcher of archaeology at the University of Helsinki, and Elina Hytönen-Ng, a researcher of cultural studies at the University of Eastern Finland, investigates the acoustics of the Devil's Church and explores whether the acoustic properties of the cave could explain the beliefs associated with it, and why it was chosen as a place for activities and rituals involving sound.

The researchers found that the Devil's Church houses a distinct resonance phenomenon that amplifies and lengthens sound at a specific frequency. This phenomenon may have significantly impacted the beliefs and experiences associated with the cave.

The researchers reviewed historical archives showing that several known sages and healers operated in the Koli area. The most famous of the sages was a man known as Kinolainen, sometimes also referred to as Tossavainen, who used the Devil's Church for magical rituals.

"According to folklore, Kinolainen would take his patients to the 'church' to talk with the Devil about the causes and cures of their ailments. This kind of a healing ritual often included loud yelling, stomping, shooting and banging," Rainio says, summarizing traditional records.

Hytönen-Ng also interviewed and observed a modern-day practitioner of shamanism who uses the Devil's Church for rituals. According to the practitioner, there is a special energy in the cave, creating a strong connection to the surrounding nature and to one's own roots.

"The practitioner told in the interview that drumming sessions especially at the back of the cave have opened up 'new horizons.'"

According to Rainio, acoustic measurements conducted in the corridor-like, smooth-walled back of the cave show a strong resonance phenomenon. The phenomenon is caused by a standing wave between the smooth parallel walls, generating a tone at the natural frequency of the cave, 231 Hz, that stays audible for around one second after sharp impulses, such as clapping, drumming or loud bangs.

Tones vocalized in the cave near the 231 Hz frequency are amplified and lengthened by the cave.

"We recorded the shamanic practitioner and found that they repeatedly vocalized tones at 231 Hz, which were then amplified by the cave at its natural frequency."

https://phys.org/news/2023-11-witchcraft-devil-church-koli-based.html
I would love to visit here.
 
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