Orange County Regional Chapter - Acoustical Society of America

Orange County, California, Regional Chapter of the
Acoustical Society of America (OCASA)

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Archaeological acoustic offerings
by David Lubman

A handclap in front of the ancient Maya temple of Kukulkan at Chichen Itza evokes a mysterious echo from its long staircase. The echo sounds like a bird chirp. And not just any bird chirp. It sounds like the quetzal - a magnificently plumed bird revered by both ancient and modern Maya. This presentation invites you to compare the chirped echo with the sound and sonogram of a real quetzal. Is this intentional acoustic design by the ancient Maya? If so, it may be the first sound recording in human history! (Based on an ASA oral paper first presented in 1998.)

Ancient Echoes: The origin of sound sculptures
by David Lubman with Brenda Kiser

This narrative explains how the discovery of the quetzal echo came about and proposes an explanation:

http://forecastpublicart.org/anthology-downloads/kiser.pdf

Since giving my 1998 paper, evoking Kukulkan’s quetzal echo has become a popular tourist sport. Watch these Youtube videos (made by others) and listen to the sounds.

View YouTube Videos

El "canto" de la priamide Kukulkan, Chichen-Itza

Chirped echoes at Kukulkan - Short and sweet.

Chirped echo at an Aztec pyramid at Teotihuacon

Chirped echo at a Maya pyramid at Tikal

Short History ChannelVideo - "Where Did It Come From? The Temple of Chichen Itza", narrated by astronomer Michael Guillen.

http://www.history.com/media.do?action=clip&id=7wonders_chichenitza_broadband

The Acousticians Tale: Acoustics at the Shrine of St. Werburgh

Was sound architecture used in Medieval English shrines for pilgrimage as well? It seems very likely that pilgrims spoke into this shrine to petition a Saxon saint. Pilgrims may have heard their own voice transmogrified, as if they had crossed a liminal boundary to a supernatural world inhabited by the saint. (We are having a problem getting this Power Point on line. Until that is fixed, please see and hear this earlier online ASA lay paper ( http://www.aip.org/148th/lubman.html )