February 2000

  Sound effects inside ancient monuments

In a series of experiments, archaeologist Aaron Watson and acoustics expert David Keating, formerly of Reading University in England, found that many European Neolithic monuments possess unusual acoustic properties that give sounds strange, otherworldly aspects.
      Experiments on Neolithic passage graves in Scotland show that the basic architecture of the tombs determines how sound behaves. Many sites yield evidence of rituals, which, like similar activities around the world, probably were highly theatrical events, perhaps involving singing or chanting and musical instruments. Inside such a tomb, the experience of sound is different from that of the outside world. The stone chamber amplifies noises and creates a range of special effects.
      One of these is a phenomenon known as "standing waves." These result from the combination of two sound waves of equal frequency and intensity traveling in opposite directions, which can produce zones of low or high intensity as the waves interact, either canceling each other out or combining to enhance the sound.
      Using an electronic tone generator inside the chamber of Camster Round cairn in Caithness, Scotland, the scientists played a continuous note at a variety of pitches until an audible, special effect occurred. Watson and Keating later demonstrated that the effect could be also produced through the low-tech expedient of a group of people chanting. The volume and intensity of the sound became enhanced, and the noise seemed to fill the chamber so completely that it was difficult to determine its source. Even stranger was the disquieting feeling that some sounds were emerging from inside the head and body of the listener, a sensation that could be quite uncomfortable.
      Another remarkable phenomenon which can be created inside passage graves is known as "Helmholtz Resonance" - the sound created when you blow across the neck of a glass bottle. Passage graves and bottles share the same basic architecture: a chamber connected to the outside world by a long, narrow neck. To create the effect, people would have had to create a sound within the chamber at precisely the right pitch, as determined by the relative proportions of the chamber and passageway at each site. The larger the chamber, the lower the pitch needed to create the resonance effect.
      The correct pitch was calculated for a number of passage graves, and all turned out to be of infrasonic frequency - notes so low down the scale that the human ear cannot hear them in any ordinary sense; rather, they are "felt" as a physical or psychological sensation. The most likely way such sounds were created in prehistory was by drumming.
      The Helmholtz Resonance was tested by drumming on an acoustic drum at the passage grave of Maeshowe, in the Orkney islands off the north coast of Scotland. Specialized sound-measuring equipment registered a strong response and additional experiments suggested the effect could be enhanced by rhythmical chanting, or even by movement around the inside of the tomb.
      The physical impact of infrasonic frequencies has been widely researched, suggesting that sounds like those measured at Maeshowe could have a profound effect on anyone exposed to them for a prolonged period. For people in prehistory, it is easy to imagine that such sensations seemed to originate in the supernatural realm.

Sources: Antiquity, Discovering Archaeology (18 February, 2000)

  Neolithic gruesome burial practices

Our Neolithic ancestors moved parts of rotting corpses from one burial place to another as part of an extended funerary ritual, a Cambridge (England) archaeologist claims. Missing hand and foot bones, and cuts from removing flesh attest to different kinds of manipulation.
      "Reordering of human remains was often the result of careful arrangement: examples include skeletons of men separated from women, and adults from children," Mary Baxter says. "From around 6,500 to 4,000 years ago, however, a completely different practice took place - disposal of the body first in one place, followed by a 'secondary burial' of the whole body or part of it somewhere else."
      Three kinds of seriously post-mortem movement can be detected, she reports in British Archaeology: the most "normal", from our point of view, is when whole bodies might be shifted before they had decayed to make room for a newly deceased person in a collective tomb.
      At the West Kennet long barrow near Avebury (England), certain body parts were removed for ritual reinterment elsewhere, especially skulls and leg bones; and at Isbister in Orkney (Scotland) the bodies were defleshed outside, and only the major bones interred clean in the tomb chamber.
      The differences can be detected because the small bones in the feet and hands are among the first to drop off as the body decays, Ms Baxter says, so that if complete corpses were buried, these would still be present. If the small bones are there, but some of the larger ones are missing, it suggests that these were removed after decay had occurred and used elsewhere. The presence of large but not small bones conversely suggests initial mortuary treatment in another location: "The hands and feet probably dropped off there or in transit," she says.
      At Haddenham, near Cambridge, a wooden chamber had contained five or six bodies: one was missing its cranium, and another consisted of just the head, neck and arms, "looking like a skeleton that had been cut in two under the armpits", Ms Baxter says. "It suggests to me that someone may have taken hold of the dead body by its shoulders and yanked." One arm has a cut mark into the bone, where the muscle was sliced off above the elbow. At Ascott under Wychwood in the Cotswolds, semi-decayed remains had been bound tightly into bundles. "The apparent tendency to handle part-decayed bodies argues against any desire to avoid the distressing sight of a rotting corpse", she says.

Source: The Times (30 January, 2000)

  Ancient Indian mound still a mystery

No one knows why pre-Columbian American Indians built a serpentine mound on a southern Ohio (U.S.A.) hilltop. And the mysterious formation's age remains a topic of archaeological debate.
      A state historical plaque at the earthwork's location declares that the mound may have been built about 900 years ago, rather than 2,000 or more years ago as archaeologists had thought. The plaque's message is based on a scientific radiocarbon-dating analysis of charcoal samples retrieved in 1991 from layers of the earthen serpent. Scientists said the radiocarbon analysis placed the origin of the charcoal samples between AD 1025 and 1215, supporting the theory that the mound was built by Fort Ancient people about 900 years ago. That makes sense because the Fort Ancient people had established a village and what may have been a burial mound nearby, said Bradley Lepper, an Ohio Historical Society archaeologist who helped retrieve the 1991 samples and wrote an article about the work.
      But there is debate. William Dancey, an Ohio State University associate professor of anthropology, said the older age estimate might be correct. Or, the correct answer might never be known because erosion and a 19th-century restoration of the mound may have forever altered key physical evidence there, he said.
      Dancey, a former teacher of Lepper's, said that although radiocarbon dating is regarded as a reliable method, the charcoal itself may have gotten into the mound from other sources long after it was built. Dancey said he still supports the earlier belief that the mound was likely built by the Adena people, thought to have lived in the area between 800 BC and AD 1. The earthwork resembles a snake nearly a quarter-mile long uncoiling atop an Adams County bluff overlooking Ohio Brush Creek. There is no evidence that it was ever a burial mound, although burial mounds were found in the vicinity, archaeologists said. Some researchers think the serpent mound might have been laid out in alignment with astronomical observations.

Source: The Beacon Journal (7 February, 2000)

  Stone Age clothing more advanced than thought

Think of life for women in the Stone Age and you've probably got them in crudely fashioned dresses made of animal skin, perhaps being dragged across the cave floor by their hair. Now think finely woven hats, belts and skirts - and a place in the highest echelons of society. That's what a new discovery tells us about women and their clothes in the upper Paleolithic.
      "It all began when we discovered and studied impressions of textiles and basketry and nets on little pieces of hard clay," explains Olga Soffer, an archeologist at the University of Illinois. "We saw an enormous diversity in loom-weaving, including plain weave, twining, and a good deal of basketry as well as nets."
      The signs of the sophisticated weaving technologies were found on over 90 pieces of clay in the Czech Republic dated at about 27,000 years ago. That makes them the earliest evidence of weaving. It was previously assumed that weaving didn't come about until 5,000 to 10,000 years ago during the Neolithic period.
      Soffer then compared the clay pieces to the so-called "Venus" figurines, which are also dated to about the same time, about 25,000 years ago. After careful study, she and her team identified fine detailing showing different weaving methods. And different items of clothing depending on which part of Europe the Venus figurines came from. Those from western Europe were adorned with basket hats or caps, belts worn at the waist and what Soffer calls a bandeau - a strap of cloth that wrapped around the body right above the breast.
      Finding the same weaving technologies depicted on the Venus women, who most probably wore them in rituals, rather than as everyday wear, also tells Soffer that women associated with weaving probably held a high position in society. "We know from the textile impressions that the weaving can be very very fine. We know the fine weaving takes a lot of time," says Soffer. "What the Venus figurines is telling us, is that this technology of making clothes was important enough to be immortalized in stone. A lot of us suppose that if it's important enough to be in iconography, it is very important in those societies, likely giving these women positions of status."
      Soffer and her team have also found some tools made of bone and ivory of about the same age. Although they are still working on the tools, they appear to be net gauges, spindle needles and weaving sticks.

Source: Discovery Channel (3 February, 2000)

  Stoney Littleton reopens to the public

Stoney Littleton is a beautiful long barrow that has suffered a long history of repeated vandalism which forced English Heritage to close the access to the site for several years. Now, after a restoration, Stoney Littleton is almost ready to be reopened to the public. Four archaeologists supervised the work carried by Clivedon Conservation Ltd, and dug out part of the floor of the gallery, finding a human toe bone and some potsherds.
      One megalith alongside this area, on the north side of the gallery, is to be left leaning at about 30 degrees but is supported by strong bronze brackets. All external scaffolding and surrounding fence was removed on 23 February. The barrow will have a gate fitted to the entrance by the end of March, and the key will be available at the farm nearby.
      It is possible, however, that the entrance gate will remain locked for a while to watch for 'settlement' of the removed and replaced stones, so it may be some months before a key to the padlock is provided for the public. Of course, now that the restoration work has been done, it is essential that there should be no abuse of the new situation, or the public may find that the place could remain locked for years.

Sources: Pete Glastonbury and Terence Meaden (25 and 27 February, 2000)

  Peruvian Nazca Lines in danger

Last month, workers toiled to defend Peru's famed Nazca lines - the mysterious symbols that Indians etched into the ground in Peru's southern desert centuries ago - by digging ditches and unblocking drains to prevent mudslides that could damage the massive and mysterious drawings.
      Two days of unusually heavy rains triggered mudslides that ripped across the Pan-American Highway, which borders on parts of the lines. One minor line was damaged about nine miles south of the most famous figures, which include a hummingbird, monkey, heron, whale, spider and flower.
      "There has been no damage to the lines, but we are worried," said Jorge Ramos, an official at Peru's cultural institute. He hoped the work would direct any flood waters away from the figures.
      The lines - among Peru's main tourist attractions - are on a desert plain about 10 miles north of the city of Nazca and 250 miles southeast of the capital, Lima. They were etched by the Nazca Indians between 300-600 AD.
      The site has baffled archaeologists, who wonder how ancient cultures constructed such straight lines and precise figures visible only from the air without modern tools or airplanes. Scientists and popular writers debate their purpose, offering such theories as a calendar, a map of underground water supplies and landing strips for space aliens. UNESCO declared the drawings around the 200-square-mile area a world heritage site in 1995

Sources: Associated Press, NBC, Washington Post (1 Feburary, 2000)

  4º Curso Intensivo da Rede Europeia de Arqueologia

Polytechnic Institute of Tomar (Portugal)
3-9 April, 2000The Polytechnic Institute of Tomar (Portugal) organises, in co-operation with several Universities, an Intensive Course on European Prehistoric Art, partially open to anyone interested.
For more details (in Portuguese only), please visit: 4º Curso Intensivo da Rede Europeia de Arqueologia

Source: Britarch Mailing List (February 28, 2000)

  Prehistoric Landscapes: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives

Aberdeen University (Scotland)

17 April, 2000A workshop on 'Prehistoric Landscapes: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives' will be held in Aberdeen University on Monday 17th April 2000 from 2-5pm. The informal workshop will be structured around presentations by: Richard Bradley (University of Reading), Tim Ingold (University of Aberdeen), and Colin Richards (University of Glasgow).
For more details please email: museum@abdn.ac.uk

Source: Britarch Mailing List (February 24, 2000)