Sound resonance in prehistoric times: A study of Paleolithic painted caves and rocks

Caves have natural properties of resonance: some parts sound very well, the sound lasts for some seconds or gives several echoes, some other parts have a dull resonance or no resonance at all. It is extremely interesting to compare in a given cave the map of the most resonant locations with the map of the locations of the paintings: are there correlations between resonance and paintings? We have studied many Paleolithic caves in France in which the answer was remarkably positive; stated shortly: the more resonant the location, the more paintings or signs are situated in this location. Here are presented some studies and results in the caves of Isturitz and Oxocelhaya in Pays Basque and in some other caves. Some considerations are given about the resonance ‐ pictures relationship in open spaces with prehistoric painted rocks. Bibliography I. Reznikoff: Prehistoric Paintings, Sound and Rocks in Studien zur Musikarchäologie III: 2nd International Symposium on Music Archaeology, Sept. 2000, ed. E. Hickmann, Berlin, Rahden, 2002, 39‐56. The Evidence of the Use of Sound Resonance from Palaeolithic to Medieval Times, Archaeoacoustics, C. Scarre & G. Lawson ed., University of Cambridge, Cambridge, 2006, 77‐84. On Primitive Elements of Musical Meaning, www.musicandmeaning.net, JMM 3 (Invited papers), 2005.