Ancient Instruments Played For First Time In 3,000 Years

Its a good day for Ancient tones....

Quote :

Archaeologists had unearthed 20 complete Strombus galeatus marine shell trumpets in 2001 at Chavín de Huántar, an ancient ceremonial center in the Andes. Polished, painted and etched with symbols, the shells had well-formed mouthpieces and distinct V-shaped cuts. The cuts may have been used as a rest for the player’s thumb, says study coauthor Perry Cook, a computer scientist at Princeton University and avid shell musician, or to allow the player to see over the instrument while walking.

To record the tunes and understand the acoustic context in which the instruments, called pututus, were played, the researchers traveled to Chavín.

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As an expert shell musician blew into the horn, researchers recorded the sound’s path via four tiny microphones placed inside the player’s mouth, the shell’s mouthpiece, the shell’s main body and at the shell’s large opening, or bell. Similar to a bugle, the instruments only sound one or two tones, but like a French horn, the pitch changes when the player plunges his hand into the bell.

The team used signal-processing software to characterize the acoustic properties of each trumpet. Following the sound’s path made it possible to reconstruct the ancient shell’s interior, a feat that normally involves sawing the shell apart or zapping it with X-rays.

The researchers also wanted to know how the site’s ceremonial chamber, a stone labyrinth with sharply twisting corridors and ventilation shafts, changed the trumpet’s sound. To find out, the team arranged six microphones around the musician and reconstructed the sound patterns on a computer.

If the trumpets were played inside the stone chamber in which they were found, the drone would have sounded like it was coming from several different directions at once. In the dimly lit religious center, that could have created a sense of confusion, Abel says.

“Were they used to scare people while they were there?” asks Abel. “There are still a lot of things left open.”

SOURCE:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/65784/title/Ancient_trumpets_played_eerie_notes

LISTEN:

http://www.sciencenews.org/musicfiles/ChavinPututusExample1.mp3

http://www.sciencenews.org/musicfiles/StrombusT2BestToots.mp3

really cool, Soma

you and your horns..


it was an interesting feeling to hear them...i don't think they were used to scare folks though
what do you feel when you listen?

I thoroughly enjoyed hearing them shells.

Why the scientist's had to simulate the accoustic space is beyond me though, as to me it once again illustrates the ancients understood resonance. I still find it cool though all the same and wonder if the same folk could simulate the kings chamber and achieve the same patterns as what has been found with sacred chants?

Soma

it has always been my understanding that the pyramid shape even made from string will ampify
that it changes "whatever" at a level we do not understand but can comprehend

i closed my eyes and completely enjoyed the feel of the shells

and strange bird that i am..i envisioned them calling in the space brothers..

I feel the same way about the call to other worlds

Could it be along the lines of "Use this sound to resonate the rocks on this energy point and we will always be connected" ?

As ya know Sky I'm verrry busy with work this week..but geez i want to do this thread more justice than the *pros* that played the dang shells.

I've also been sinking some thought into that Portal in Peru aswell !


http://www.thelivingmoon.com/42stargate/03files/Amaru_Maru.html

I am gonna check that Peru portal out Soma.

Just my take on the shells, I know this must be the dumbest question but where would they get shells like that, shaped like that and that big from that part of the world?