Acoustics and Music of British Prehistory Research Network

Patterning

What kinds of differences are there in the social experience of sound between different types of archaeological context? Are there evolutionary and or geographical/cultural distinctions?

Do religious sites share different types of acoustics properties? How did we get here? Can we see real patterns or change?

To what extent is it possible to confirm or falsify the relationships between site occupations and acoustic phenomena?

What are the acoustic properties of different types of hammer stones? More generally the acoustic properties of different types of material? Were these distinctions recognised?

Public engagement

How can our research improve public experience of prehistoric sites? What is the current Silence can be reverence. Silence allows us to imagine sound.  Different people are differently sensitive.

Methodology

How important is the exact determination of the original form of a site or structure?

How do we choose a particular phase of use for an acoustic study?

Do we have a preference for passive or active investigations?

How do we include acoustics as a routine part of fieldwork?

How many musical instruments exist already unrecognised in the basements of museums – and can we go and see them? (this question included a sound which cannot be written down)

How do we distinguish different periods of use wear to distinguish between prehistoric use wear and modern (use) wear?

Specifically is there archaeological evidence for use wear etc as shown in Elizabeth Blake’s work on flint blades as lithophones?

What physical traces can we find, in the field and the finds laboratory, of musical, dance and processional behaviours and how can we characterise them? (This can include listening equipment.)

For some periods we have some musical instruments (though we are unlikely to have identified all of them) but we know little about the spaces in which they were played. In others we can know more about where instruments may have been played, but we have few, if any, instruments. How can these restrictions be turned to our advantage?

Scope

How much can the work that’s going with later prehistory and music in general be drawn into the Palaeolithic (most specifically Upper Palaeolithic)? Are there methodological or theoretical blocks to extending the scope of study?