Stonehenge mini-model reveals how the voices would have been worn in an original ancient monument

A team of researchers from the University of Salford in the UK revealed how voices would have resonated 4000 years ago inside the Stonehenge monument. The group recorded their efforts and published the results on SoundCloud.

Stonehenge is, of course, a monument built about 5,000 years ago by Neolithic people for unknown reasons: they left no written document. Nowadays, the monument has become famous around the world and attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. The researchers explored what a human voice would have looked like inside the monument at its peak. To find out, they applied a modern technique used to help architects build concert halls with optimal sound characteristics. The technique involves building a small-scale building model before construction and blasting it at 12 times its normal frequency in an acoustic chamber to overcome size differences.

To replicate the Stonehenge technique, 3-D researchers printed each stone and used it to make silicon molds that were then filled with a plaster-polymer blend. Each stone was painted and placed in its original position in the monument. The result was a scale 1:12 scale model of the original monument – the tallest stone model measured just 60 centimeters.

Then, the team submitted the model to sound tests in an acoustic chamber, producing a sound profile for the monument. They then applied the sound profile to the recorded voice of a member of the team. The researchers say that the voice in the recording sounds as if it would have been the team member to stand at the center of the monument while he was speaking so many years ago. They note that despite the large spaces between the stones, the voice of a person would have been heard around the monument, producing an echo effect. They also suggest that it is unlikely that the people who built the monument know what impact it would have on a speaker's voice, but points out that it seems likely that they would have benefited impressive acoustics.

Professor @trevor_cox of @SalfordAcoustic The research center recreated the sounds of the #Stone Age like sounds passed through a 1:12 scale model #Stonehenge, to determine how the sound would have carried all its stones in 2200 BC. https://t.co/x0oCW1NH9m

– Salford Uni News (@SalfordUniNews) July 11, 2019

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