Out of the Mouths of Babes...
There's a bit of an argument about the dots in the Portel caves. To an extent, although it's an interesting topic, it doesn't really matter to me. Something was going on which related the resonances to the paintings, and falling back on the old archæological adage of "possible ritual significance" I wanted to work out what could be... The dots may be entoptic images signifying early rituals, or not. It's a complex topic and the lines are already entrenched, For one snippet of the arguments by Fleming, Bradley et al., try looking here.
Basically, it all started when someone pointed out to me Scarre's note "Painting by Resonance" in an old copy of Nature. I read the last paragraph, and, if you've checked the previous page you'll already know that I disagreed. I posted in response...
>Drums, flutes and whistles may have been used in cave rituals ... >The potential of cave resonance would, however, be elicited only >by the much greater range of the human voice. just at this last I disagree (with the _only_). Although the human voice is more flexible in deducing the resonance, once you know it, you can use an end-blown mouthpiece instrument to get there again rather more easily. And these people, presumably, had a lot of practice... I heard this truly mindblowing Rumanian chant last night - having already seen this posting I was paying strict attention to the form, but it was still mind-blowing. Although the range was almost two and a half octaves, the basic portion was less than an octave, the rest being those percussive slides for rhythmic effect, much like playing a didge and making those shouted "krowch" noises down it. Thus, the same _resonance_ effect could be created with a melody instrument sounding, say G-G2, with a low drum at C and a semi-pitched rattle at C2-G3. Or thereabouts. If the resonance were around the G2 mark, the, bottom and top of the instrument, plus the main harmonic of the drum, would combine into the resonance effect...
Post in haste, repent at leisure. But, if I'd waited until I was surer of my facts, none of this would have happened. A couple of days later I had a little more spare time. I started going through the bookshelf for stuff from Bela Bartok's folk collections, African music, Malay monochords, anything I could find. I hacked some tunes around; I bought plastic pipe.
the world's cheapest "ritual" instrument?
But, after I painstakingly translated the original paper, and found out about swan-bone flutes, I finally admitted defeat. I posted...
Earlier, of the note by Chris Scarre, I hastily wrote... > ...If the resonance were around the G2 > mark, the, bottom and top of the instrument, plus the main harmonic > of the drum, would combine into the resonance effect... this last has only two faults. Firstly, it's not supported by the available evidence. Secondly it doesn't work.
But it wasn't long before I found something that did. And that was fun, too...
