The secret sounds of Stonehenge

Quote from source:
Just after sunrise on a misty spring morning last year, my fellow acoustician at the University of Salford, Bruno Fazenda, and Rupert Till of the University of Huddersfield, UK, could be found wandering around Stonehenge popping balloons. This was not some bizarre pagan ritual. It was a serious attempt to capture the "impulse response" of the ancient southern English stone circle, and with it perhaps start to determine how Stonehenge might have sounded to our ancestors.

An impulse response characterises all the paths taken by the sound between its source – in this case a popping balloon – and a microphone positioned a few metres away. It is simply a plot of the sound pressure at the microphone in the seconds after the pop. The first, strongest peak on the plot represents the sound that travelled directly from the source to the microphone. Later, smaller peaks indicate the arrival of reflections off the stones. The recording and plot shows the impulse response Bruno and Rupert measured with a microphone positioned at the centre of Stonehenge and a popping balloon at the edge of the circle.

This impulse response represents an acoustic fingerprint of the stones. Back in the lab, it can be used to create a virtual rendition of any piece of music or speech as it would sound within the stone circle. All that is needed is an "anechoic" recording of the raw music or speech – a recording made in a reflection-free environment such as the open air or, better, a specialist anechoic chamber such as we have at Salford. The anechoic recording and the impulse response can then be combined using a mathematical operation called convolution.

This is so damn cool!!

I looked around for this on here and found nothing so if this is already being discussed, my apologies.

I was amazed how you hear everything so clearly, and how the structure actually holds sounds so well.

I would think, with this little experiment, that this is what it was used for. Perhaps mediation, or chanting, or something along those lines.

This has to be one of the most interesting experiments I have seen in a while.

Any thoughts?

Pred...

source

really interesting stuff. When listening to it it sounds kind of like binaural beats. Seems like if you listened to that for a long time it would be really good for meditation.

reply to post by bulletproof_monk


That's what I thought initially, sounds like it would be used for acoustics. There is no way that this was done by accident. Maybe this was the ancients way of getting high, or reaching another spiritual plane. If you move around the sound changes thus affecting your feeling.

Maybe each stone does something different to you.

Damn, I wish I lived in the UK.

Thanks for the reply,

Pred...

yeah, i would love to go there with my guitar and check how that sounds. i bet id have a lot of fun playing around over there

Hi
I dont normally do much debunking but when it come to Stonehenge something has to be pointed out-
The whole site was 'reconstructed' and fiddled with several times in the 1900's.
A photo of the site from 1877 looks like this:



A more modern photo from a similar angle looks like this:



Very similar but clearly, since it has been altered at all, the site is relatively worthless in research terms. It doesn't matter if sounds echo a certain way now because its coincidence. The same could be said for theories about giant calendars, etc. We will never know what the stones were actually used for. The surrounding landscape however, still contains much of archaeological worth.

Oh, here's some SOURCE from wiki and also some slightly more crazy source HERE . You can find a bunch of stuff about the stones being 'secretly' rebuilt on several conspiracy sites. Apparantly English Heritage stopped telling people about it in the 60's to maintain the sites mystical allure.

Nevertheless, the possible musical usage is an interesting concept. It reminds me of the Rossyln Chapel music. There are tons of you tube videos on that subject, here's one: www.youtube.com...

reply to post by ZombieJ


All they've done is stand some stones up that had fallen over and set them in concrete.


From wiki
In 1958 the stones were restored again, when three of the standing sarsens were re-erected and set in concrete bases. The last restoration was carried out in 1963 after stone 23 of the Sarsen Circle fell over. It was again re-erected, and the opportunity was taken to concrete three more stones

No modifications have been made, so of course this discovery is still relevant. If they had moved the stones from their original position, then this would be pretty worthless, but they've not.

Thank you for sharing, I had no idea what an acoustician did. Very interesting method. I also feel like even though it was reconstructed, it appears to be an integral re-modeling of how it may have used to be. In fact, I think Stonehenge should be subject to more reconstruction, backed by scientists this time and not the alleged "rednecks".

Right, look at the shape of the stonehenge. If one was to consider that because it was repaired it is now worthless, you have to also look at the symmetry of the shape. It is the shape, and perhaps the location, that makes this an anomaly. This shape should be redone in another area, and the same acoustic test should be done on the new one - compare results, and you have your conclusion.

Thanks for that info Hex!!

I think Stonehenge should be restored as we think it used to be, as with the pyramids. Every generation should take the time and make sure these monuments are taken care of.

If we thought like this then our monuments would last longer and be around for further generations to enjoy. We would have a better and more accurate history.

They are so beautiful and one day if they are not looked after they will be gone and there will be no evidence that they ever existed.

Just my opinion anyway.

Pred...

reply to post by gwynnhwyfar


Thanks for that video, I love cymatics.

I always think if it can do that do inanimate objects imagine how it interacts with us and our brain waves.

I think the acoustics is what Stonehenge was used for, or at least one of the things. Those kind of sounds affect our minds and change the way we feel.

I think that is more plausible then just a calendar.

Pred...

Originally posted by predator0187
Thanks for that info Hex!!

I think Stonehenge should be restored as we think it used to be, as with the pyramids. Every generation should take the time and make sure these monuments are taken care of.

If we thought like this then our monuments would last longer and be around for further generations to enjoy. We would have a better and more accurate history.

They are so beautiful and one day if they are not looked after they will be gone and there will be no evidence that they ever existed.

Just my opinion anyway.

Pred...

Hey man. Thanks for the thanks

Regarding cymatics (from another poster):
This is a bit off topic (maybe) but, I've been fascinated with the pyramids for as long as I can remember, I'm 27 now, but I've had a theory for as long as I can remember (since I was taught about the pyramids and ancient Egypt in general). I remember having a conversation about the pyramids with my friend when we were in jr 4 (year 6 [10 years old]), when we were only just taught about them in school.
I suggested to him that the ancient Egyptians were extraterrestrials, or aliens as I called them back then. He agreed and said he had come to the same conclusion. He doesn't remember this conversation, but I do.
I thought it was weird that two 10 year olds had come up with this strange theory independently, just off what we were told about at school. It's like both our subconscious' had realised that the official story was bull#, and had come up with something more logical.

It was only two years ago (age 25) when I was informed about the "ancient astronaut" theory, that we all know and love. I couldn't believe that I had suspected this for years without knowing that other people had also thought this, and ther was a lot of evidence to back this up.

After hearing about this, I stumbled across a video on cymatics by accident. Soon after that, for some reason, I concluded that the pyramids must have been formed from some kind of symatic resonance. Just the accuracy of them seemed to fit in with videos of cymmatics somehow, and timeframe that the official story gives couldn't possibly have accommodated the "official story" - or theory.
After suspecting that cymatics had something to do with the construction of the pyramids, I found out that there was already a theory that sound waves actually built the pyramids.

I was shocked by this news. I KNEW that what I suspected couldn't possibly be coincidental. There is something glaringly obvious to the subconscious, that out everyday consciousness wouldn't normally 'pick up' on. But for some reason, mine did. I couldn't have just invented two theories out of nowhere by chance, that were already theorised by someone else with greater knowledge than me.

I believe that cymatics is a lost science, and that it was used in the construction of these ancient constructions such as Stone Henge and the pyramids.

Sorry if it doesn't make sense - I'm a bit drunk. Happy Christmas everyone.

Originally posted by predator0187
Thanks for that info Hex!!

I think Stonehenge should be restored as we think it used to be, as with the pyramids. Every generation should take the time and make sure these monuments are taken care of.

If we thought like this then our monuments would last longer and be around for further generations to enjoy. We would have a better and more accurate history.

They are so beautiful and one day if they are not looked after they will be gone and there will be no evidence that they ever existed.

Just my opinion anyway.

Pred...

Hey man. Thanks for the thanks

Regarding cymatics (from another poster):
This is a bit off topic (maybe) but, I've been fascinated with the pyramids for as long as I can remember, I'm 27 now, but I've had a theory for as long as I can remember (since I was taught about the pyramids and ancient Egypt in general). I remember having a conversation about the pyramids with my friend when we were in jr 4 (year 6 [10 years old]), when we were only just taught about them in school.
I suggested to him that the ancient Egyptians were extraterrestrials, or aliens as I called them back then. He agreed and said he had come to the same conclusion. He doesn't remember this conversation, but I do.
I thought it was weird that two 10 year olds had come up with this strange theory independently, just off what we were told about at school. It's like both our subconscious' had realised that the official story was bull#, and had come up with something more logical.

It was only two years ago (age 25) when I was informed about the "ancient astronaut" theory, that we all know and love. I couldn't believe that I had suspected this for years without knowing that other people had also thought this, and ther was a lot of evidence to back this up.

After hearing about this, I stumbled across a video on cymatics by accident. Soon after that, for some reason, I concluded that the pyramids must have been formed from some kind of cymatic resonance. Just the accuracy of them seemed to fit in with videos of cymatics somehow, and timeframe that the official story gives couldn't possibly have accommodated the "official story" - or theory.
After suspecting that cymatics had something to do with the construction of the pyramids, I found out that there was already a theory that sound waves actually built the pyramids.

I was shocked by this news. I KNEW that what I suspected couldn't possibly be coincidental. There is something glaringly obvious to the subconscious, that our everyday consciousness wouldn't normally 'pick up' on. But for some reason, mine did. I couldn't have just invented two theories out of nowhere by chance, that were already theorised by someone else with greater knowledge than me.

I believe that cymatics is a lost science, and that it was used in the construction of these ancient constructions such as Stone Henge and the pyramids.

Sorry if it doesn't make sense - I'm a bit drunk. Happy Christmas everyone.

reply to post by predator0187


s+f

This reminds me of a ch4 documentery by Paul Devereux "Secrets of the Dead: Sounds from the Stone Age"

Unfortunately the video is unavailable

I'll add this related info on the subject.

Aaron Watson Archaeology Research

Acoustical Phenomenon in Ancient Totonac's Monument

Was Maya Pyramid Designed to Chirp Like a Bird?

Tibetan Sound Levitation Of Large Stones Witnessed By Scientist