Raquel Jiménez Pasalodos

In this article, the potential of archaeoacoustics for understanding past communities is discussed by looking at a range of acoustic parameters. Our case study is the Urkosh rock art area in the Ongudai district, Republic of Altai (Russia). The rock art of this area dates possibly from the Upper Palaeolithic and definitely from the Early Bronze Age (second half of the third millennium BCE). There are important periods in the Early Iron Age (first half of the first millennium BCE) and the medieval era, after which there are later additions up to the present day. Major and minor sites were tested, as well as some with no art. The results obtained from the tests conducted using the impulse response method indicate high values for sound clarity not only in the rock art sites but also in at least one nearby panel without rock art. Although these results cannot explain why rock art was produced precisely in specific locations, they objectively describe the acoustic conditions under which particular intangible cultural practices were probably organised in them. In particular we focus on storytelling and music, cultural practices for which there is a wealth of information in the ethnographic sources written about the area.

The acoustics of the Lower Chuya River area rock art landscape are analyzed through both the exploration of its acoustic properties and the ethnographic information gathered about the region. The results obtained in the acoustics tests undertaken in the area, in particular at the rock art sites of Kalbak-Tash I, Kalbak-Tash II, and Adyr-Kan, are examined. They indicate that the perceived loudness resulting from a natural amplification of sound (strength parameter) and music and speech clarity may have been some of the reasons behind the selection of these locations for rock art production. The ethnographic sources related to the Altai and other Siberian areas are then reviewed as a way of providing an ontological framework for the study of Altaian sonic concepts and behaviors in nature. As the sources indicate, at least for the historical period and presumably earlier, in the prehistoric period, all existing beings are entangled by sound, and they mimic each other in endless ways. We argue that these sites were selected in a non-linear relational ontological framework. It is suggested that the multidisciplinary perspective combining archaeology, physical acoustics, and ethnography has considerable potential for providing a new, richer understanding of rock art landscapes.

This article looks into the early twentieth century history of anthropological approaches to the study of music. Specifically, it delves into Alfred L. Kroeber's work on Native Californian cultures. It inquires into why Kroeber did not include music in his anthropological publications, despite collecting and analysing Native Californian music in private.

The unpublished field notes on Native American Yokuts cultures and languages taken by linguist and ethnologist John P. Harrington in 1914–1942, now kept at the Smithsonian Institution, are analysed in the framework of Edward S. Caseýs concept of mapping with/in. The Yokuts’ process of mapping tripni places (powerful places) with/in their ancestral territories during the early twentieth century is discussed, paying particular attention to the role of hearing and sound. Moreover, in these archival materials, Yokuts tribal members relate with different bodies of water in an absorptive and porous way, with sound being part of a complex haptic and multi-sensory process. By listening to the testimonies of the Yokuts tribal members who collaborated with Harrington, we argue that sound perception, song, and the sense of hearing played a key role in the process of mapping tripni.

In this paper, we present a brief historiographical and methodological introduction to music archeology and archaeoacoustics, archaeological subdisciplines that study the material evidence of musical practices in the distant past. Moreover, we briefly present some of the main archaeological finds linked to music, sound and acoustics from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic periods in Eurasia. Finally, we propose a series of discoveries as case studies that will allow us to reflect on the cultural importance of musicality, and the possible uses and functions of music in those hunter-gatherer and early farmer societies.

Las trompetas cerámicas celtibéricas de finales de la Edad del Hierro (siglos III-I a. C.) se conocen desde que se hallaron a principios del siglo XX en las excavaciones arqueológicas de la antigua ciudad de Numancia. Se trata de aerófonos de boquilla (labrosones) ultracirculares que tradicionalmente se han interpretado como instrumentos de señalización o como instrumentos para hacer ruido en contextos bélicos. Este artículo presenta el primer trabajo de caracterización acústica de estos instrumentos, que ha permitido comprobar sus posibilidades musicales, su capacidad para articular diferentes tonos y, en consecuencia, producir no sólo señales simples o ruido sino también melodías sencillas. Para realizar el trabajo se llevó a cabo un estudio acústico y musical con reproducciones modernas de estos instrumentos y éstas se compararon con fragmentos de trompetas numantinas originales, lo cual ha aportado nuevos e interesantes datos a la arqueología musical de finales de la Edad del Hierro en la Península Ibérica.