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December 28, 2004
Mayan acoustics






Recently, I've been playing with music-filtering software and hardware -- like the superbly cool Filter Factory by Electrix. Then I read this cool piece on Nature.com, in which acousticians have analyzed Mayan tombs and found that they were designed to produce incredibly weird sound effects. If you stand in front of the staircase of the El Castillo pyramid and clap your hands, you'll hear an echo that sounds like the chirp of a bird. If you walk up the stone steps, it produces a flurry of echoes that sounds like rain falling into a bucket. As Nature reports:

Declercq's team has shown that the height and spacing of the pyramid's steps creates like an acoustic filter that emphasizes some sound frequencies while suppressing others. But more detailed calculations of the acoustics shows that the echo is also influenced by other, more complex factors, such as the mix of frequencies of the sound source.

Since the Mayans were hardcore mathematicians, it's entirely possible they did this stuff intentionally, though Declerq and his team won't know until they do more measurements.


(Thanks to SciTech Daily for this one!)

Posted by Clive Thompson at December 28, 2004 02:05 PM

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» Acoustic analysis shows how temple transforms echoes into sounds of nature from Echo Generation
In the process of clearing out some 'draft' posts I've had sitting around too long, so expect a few short posts about various topics of interest. In this case, a story from Collision Detection about Mayan acoustics. Researchers have analyzed Ma... [Read More]

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Comments

That's fantastic! And it reminds me weirdly of The Phantom Tollbooth, where a sound came out as an object—a clap was a sheet of paper, a drumroll was (I think) a bundle of yarn.

Posted by: Emily at December 28, 2004 3:51 PM

Yes!

Posted by: Clive at December 29, 2004 1:34 AM

For me, this link between archeology and acoustic reminds me of a crazy project french Nobel prize Georges Charpak had a few years ago: to extract thousands of years old voices and sounds from old poteries. Basically, as poteries are often made with a rotating device, and often a stylet or some kind of stick to decorate it, they should record the vibrations around them just as the primitive wax cylinder recorders, or the more modern vinyl discs. So in theory, with a very precise reading with a laser and a powerful noise elimination treatment of the signal afterwards, you would be able to extract voices and sounds from museum poteries. The voices of the long gone men and women working on the object, maybe singing, or talking with friends, maybe some animal sounds too. I guess it never worked, but I find this idea hmm... completely poetic, technically fascinating, and, in the words of Clive, insanely cool :)

Posted by: Guillermito at December 29, 2004 2:38 AM

That's a really beautiful idea. Can you point me anywhere i could read more about it?

And Clive, where are the honeymoon snaps?

Posted by: Jen at December 30, 2004 10:00 AM

I travelled to Chitchenitza (Old Mayan City in Mexico) with my family and the tour guide pointed this out to us. Supposedly if you stand directly in front of the temple steps and clap loudly, the resulting sound is the TRUE NAME of the Mayan god Quetzelcoatal. It does sound like a bird chirp followed by the hiss of a snake. (Since Quetzal was a feathered serpent I suppose it works)

Posted by: Tarn Brubaker at December 30, 2004 4:56 PM

I was just in Chichen Itza this past spring and heard the effect you describe. As for whether it was intentional or not, I'm pretty convinced it was. The entire site is filled with sonic/mathmatical/astrological wonders. In the ball court, if you stand on one side and clap, you'll hear the echo seven times (seven was a magic number for the Mayans, and is seen throughout their architecture and sculpture). The viewing booths/stages at either end of this court, when they were in better condition, could amplify a speakers voice so that they could be hear clearly at the other end of the court. On and on...

The most amazing though is the Kukulkan's Pyramid (http://www.locogringo.com/past_spotlights/apr2002.html). During the spring and fall equinoxes, as the sun rises and sets, it creates the "image" of Kukulkan (Chichen Itza's serpent God), along the edge of one of the staircases. The image is made up of seven triangles from the edges of the pyramid (seven again) and when the farmers saw the snake going "up" (leaving the ground) or "down" (into the ground), they knew when it was time to plant seeds or harvest the crops.

Pretty ingenious people.

Posted by: Shagz at December 30, 2004 11:16 PM

It's so cool to hear the effect validated by people who've heard it!

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