Stonehenge mystery

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Stonehenge may have been the place to rock out at trippy Neolithic concerts of sorts — and that may explain why the mysterious circle of stones was erected.

A U.S. researcher suggests that the architects of Stonehenge were inspired by magical "auditory illusions" the stones could produce, according to a Live Science report.

Steven Waller, a researcher who specializes in the sound properties of ancient sites, is challenging common Stonehenge theories that the site was intended for spiritual worship and ceremonial burials.

He suggests that the stones were arranged to create a special sound phenomena that baffled participants of ritual piper dancing, and they may have thought the effect was supernatural.

These gatherings usually consisted of two pipers playing music with dancers encircling them.

Waller attributes this sound illusion to something called an "interference pattern." This occurs when two sound waves clash and results in people hearing a louder or softer noise depending on their location from the source.

Waller offered his speculations at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Thursday. His theory suggests that during ritual dances people would have experienced this noise cancellation and most likely attributed it to something otherworldly.

"I think they were experiencing this illusion, thinking it was magic pillars, and then constructed the actual structure," said Waller.

The scientific community is not expected to accept the largely speculative theory with open arms.

"There is no question its main axis is aligned along the mid-summer sunrise and mid-winter sunset and there is widespread agreement that it was used for cremation burials," said Mike Pitts, a leading expert on Stonehenge, to the Telegraph.

But Maller does not expect to settle this seemingly primordial mystery. Instead he simply wishes to emphasize the acoustics of archaeology in rock art like Stonehenge.

"Nobody has been paying attention to sound," Waller said to LiveScience "We've been destroying sound. In some of the French caves, they've widened the tunnels to build little train tracks to take the tourists back - thereby ruining the acoustics that could have been the whole motivation in the first place."


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/s ... z1mnMje76M

No magic was involved. It's only an interference pattern where the sounds of two sources seem louder in certain locations and softer in others.


Nothing new. That idea's been kicking around for generations.


Yep. Stone-age flim-flam at its finest!


So you did read the article! See? No magic at all!


It's easy to convince ignorant people of the "Supernatural". It's us edgy-mechated people what ain't so easily fooled.


I think this accoustic effect may have played a part in certain rituals, but that the astronomical alignments are more important.

*facepalm* He was quoting the article word for word you know. If you read it, you would have known that.

Yes, I read the article. But if you had been reading most of my posts for the last few years, you would have known how much I enjoy driving the point home that there is no magic.

babies are so cute they are magical

Of course, I've seen you in action in PPR. But you made it sound like you were addressing him, not the article, that's all.

Yah Fnord!

You inferred it.

Acoustic shadows and interference patters are as old as sound. This is something inherent in all wave phenomena.

ruveyn

I have no problem with Fnords responce. As I have always enjoyed his writings and value his opinion. Good to see ya mate

Unfortunately, short of a time machine, there's no way any of the almost countless theories of Stone Henge can be proven, as it's builders had no written language, and their culture didn't survive into historic times.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

I built Stonehenge

By the way, your new avatar is hilarious.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Now that Fnord has informed us all that water is wet and has brillaintly and deftly missed every point the OP made and then proceded to beat the crap out of the OP for things the OP didnt say lets return to the subject of what the OP actually said.
And if necessary - beat on him for crimes he IS commiting instead of crimes he didnt commit.

The OP is saying that some guy has a theory that Stonehenge was deliberately designed for its mind bending accoustic properties.

So where is the evidence for this?

Even if the site has some kind of wierd accousitcs how does this theorist know that it was deliberately built for that, and not (like an echo at a natural canyon) just an accident of the archtecture?

Did the author of the article conduct tests of his own? Did he place a band, or some other sound producing agent in the midst of the stone ring and then use his ears, ocilliscopes, and/or recording mics, to document these intereference patterns? Youd think he would do that first - determine if the effect even exists- before he goes into the how and the why.

Stonehenge is greatly damaged getting it's many thousand years old, luckilly the structure is regular and thus it's easy to exrapolate what it originally lookeed like. So, the best bet is mathematics and stimulations.