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Ok, sorry abut the delay.
DISCLAIMER. I am in no way a professional scientist so if you want to correct anything here please let me know as this is only what I recall and thence my interpretation thereof.
I have found that the programme was on Channel4 (UK) and was called ‘stoneage soundtracks’.
I have also found the following links:
http://www.rdg.ac.uk/AcaDepts/la/neolithic/index.htm (home page of the bloke who did the programme)
http://www.forteantimes.com/exclusive/devsounds.shtml (interview, review and more links)
http://www.the-bureau.org/Conclusions.htm (slightly more bizarre, dealing with infra-sound and ghosts)
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/depts/physics/vibrations/vib12.htm (details of the effects of vibration on the human body)
Sound Basics:
Infra-sound is the name given to frequencies which the human ear cannot detect because they are to low- generally <25Hz. However these frequencies have strange effects on the rest of the human body and can cause your bones to resonate or you brain to shut off! They can be generated quite easily but require a space in which to resonate and build up amplitude, otherwise they remain very low powered.
History:
While on a field trip to eastern Scotland it was noticed that a number of the local stone circles seemed to have odd acoustic properties- sounds made in the middle of the circle were amplified while those made at the perimeter were deadened. This was later confirmed by taking accurate acoustic measuring equipment. Similar tests were then carried out in burial mounds, the main difference being that these are enclosed spaces, it quickly became apparent that the size and shape of the internal chambers could very easily be made to resonate in the infra-sound range. Strangely enough the way in which these chambers have been built means that sounds produced by the human voice (or simple instruments) can create low frequency standing waves. At one point during an experiment using a simple tambour one member of the crew interrupted to say that he was suddenly feeling light headed and tired!
While no one would claim that every ancient monument was built which such high technical specifications it does start to explain the odd location of a number of cairns and burial mounds. The general floor plan of these sites is of one straight corridor leading into a larger chamber that is usually square (or with rounded corners) and often has a ‘seat’ or alcove in. These buildings, then, resonate when sounds are made in them, but; they also resonate when wind blows across the entrance, exactly like a bottle. This effect is common in area with disused mines, but it can be seen that these mounds were sited in such a way that they would ‘sing’ when the wind was blowing in a particular way!
(Sites visited in the programme included Newgrange and Maes Howe)
Although this was the main gist of the television programme there was also a short explanatory section with some modern discoveries in. The first was the way in which simple mechanical devices can generate infra-sound- such as the air conditioning in factories and offices- and the way this affects the mind.
They also had some footage from the 70’s on research into car accidents and the way in which the road surface can cause the car to resonate! (Here’s the scary bit) At certain frequencies infra-sound can turn off parts of the brain and in a statistically significant number of car accidents which seemed to have no other cause it would appear that this is exactly what happened. The combination of the road surface, the car, the weather etc. results in infra-sound being generated in the car which then put the driver in a trance like state. They had interviews with some of these people who all said something along the lines of “Yes, I knew the car was headed towards the bridge/lake/central reservation… but felt no need to do anything about it” !! No really !!
Oddly enough that is the part of the programme that really stuck in my mind. Disregarding the amazing architectural achievements of the neo-lithic period, you could be driving home one night and crash for no reason and be unable to do anything about it. Ow!
Since thinking about this over the weekend in preparation to writing I was struck by a fairly left-field theory, which goes something like this;
Human religious experience is underlined by an exploration of trance states.
Ok that’s a bit big and broad and not especially new but bare with me.
Although they are called ‘burial chambers’ modern evidence shows that- as with the pyramids- very little post-death inhabitation happened in these places. So what were they for?..
Narcotics aside shamanic practices have always relied on drumming and dancing…
Christianity’s greatest monuments are the European cathedrals, i.e. big resonant spaces with huge organs in…
The most successful forms of meditation involve some sort of breathing/sound element…
and so on… Whatever flavour god you choose you’ll up meeting hir while tripped out on infra-sound the same way as all our ancestors have been doing for the last five thousand years!! perhaps |
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