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Archaeoacoustics: Re-Sounding Material Culture Volume 14 | Issue 4 Winter 2018 A Publication of the Acoustical Society of America Archaeoacoustics: Re-Sounding Material Culture Also In This Issue n From Sputnik to SpaceX : 60 Years of n Hearing and Aging Effects on Speech ® Understanding: Challenges and Solutions Rocket Launch Acoustics n Advancements in Thermophones: Sound n Deep Language Learning Winter 2018 | Acoustics Today | 1 Generation from Nanoscopic Heaters Volume 14 | Issue 4 | Winter 2018 Acoustics A Publication of the Acoustical Society of AmericaToday TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 From the Editor Sound Perspectives 7 From the President 56 Ask an Acoustician – Sandra Gordon-Salant and Micheal L. Dent Featured Articles 60 ASA Chapters: Form and Function – Kenneth W. Good, 10 Hearing and Aging Efects on Speech Understanding: Jr., and Jacob M. Mauck Challenges and Solutions – Samira Anderson, Sandra Gordon-Salant, and Judy R. Dubno 63 Technical Specialty Group Report: Computational Acoustics – D. Keith Wilson Development of efective, evidence-based solutions to overcoming communication barriers imposed by 66 ASA at the 2018 Intel International Science and hearing loss is critical in our rapidly aging population. Engineering Fair - Jefrey Vipperman 19 Deep Language Learning – Steven Greenberg 69 “Listen Up! And Get Involved” – Tracianne B. Neilsen and L. Keeta Jones How technology enhances language instruction. 28 Archaeoacoustics: Re-Sounding Material Culture Departments – Miriam A. Kolar 46 Foundation Report – James H. Miller Archaeoacoustics probes the dynamical potential of archaeological materials, producing nuanced 72 Obituary - Robert Hickling | 1931-2017 understandings of sonic communication, and re-sounding silenced places and objects. 73 ASA Press Book Announcements Nonlinear Ultrasonic and Vibro-Acoustical Techniques 38 From Sputnik to SpaceX®: 60 Years of Rocket Launch for Nondestructive Evaluation – Tribikram Kundu Acoustics – Caroline P. Lubert Underwater Acoustic Signal Processing: Modeling, Te feld of rocket launch noise is 60 years old and has Detection, and Estimation – Douglas A. Abraham a lot to celebrate! Te Science of Musical Sound: Volume 1: Stringed 47 Advancements in Termophones: Sound Generation Instruments, Pipe Organs, and the Human Voice from Nanoscopic Heaters – Nathanael Mayo – William R. Bennett, Jr., edited by Andrew C.H. Morrison Researchers adapt solid-state sound-generation Efects of Anthropogenic Noise on Animals – edited by techniques discovered shortly afer the invention of Hans Slabbekoorn, Robert Dooling, Arthur N. Popper, and the telephone. Richard R. Fay 76 Classi feds, Business Directory, Advertisers Index About The Cover From “Archaeoacoustics: Re-Sounding Material Culture “ by Miriam A. Kolar. Photography by José L. Cruzado Coronel, for Programa de Inves- tigación Arqueológica y Conservación Chavín de Huántar, of Chavín pututu (Strombus Lobatus galeatus shell horn), currently on display in the Museo Nacional Chavín, Ancash, Perú. 2 | Acoustics Today | Winter 2018 Archaeoacoustics: Re-Sounding Material Culture Miriam A. Kolar Archaeoacoustics probes the dynamical potential of archaeological ma- Address: terials, producing nuanced understandings of sonic communication, and Five Colleges, Inc. re-sounding silenced places and objects. 97 Spring Street Acoustical Experiments in Archaeological Settings Amherst, Massachusetts 01002 Acoustical First Principles in Practice: Echoes and Transmission Range USA Atop a 150-meter-long, 3,000-year-old stone-and-earthen-mortar building, 20 to Email: 40 meters higher than surrounding plazas, two Andean colleagues and I listened [email protected] to cascading echoes produced via giant conch shell horns known in the Andes as pututus (see Figure 1). Riemann Ramírez, José Cruzado, and I were testing and documenting the performance of an archaeologically appropriate sound source at the UNESCO World Heritage site at Chavín de Huántar, Perú (available at acousticstoday.org/chavin), located at the center of a 400- to 500-meter-wide val- ley 3,180 meters above sea level. Our objective for this experiment, conducted in 2011, was to measure sound transmission via its return from landform features surrounding the site. Although we concurred that we perceived the echoes “swirl- ing around from all directions,” our mission that day was more than reporting subjective impressions. By recording the initial sound and returning echo se- quence using a co-located audio recorder, along with the ambient conditions of temperature and humidity important to calculating the contextual speed of sound in air, I could make precise calculations in postsurvey data analyses regarding the distances of surfaces producing discrete echoes. Via this typical archaeoacousti- cal experiment, we confirmed that the closest rockface on the steep western hill- side, known to locals as “Shallapa,” produced discrete audible echoes with little signal distortion. The test also demonstrated that transmission of the sound of large Strombus pututus, which measure around 96 dB(A) at 1 meter, was effective to at least 1 kilometer away from the site because strong echoes returned 6 seconds later (Kolar et al., 2012, pp. 45-46). This range is consistent with undistorted and audible pututu sound transmission between the site and several archaeologically relevant landform features of the surrounding valley. Pututus such as these were excavated from the 1st millennium BCE architecture at Chavín and continue to be important throughout the Andes today. Therefore, our study not only provided dynamical specifics regarding pututus in the Chavín context but also measures extensible to the archaeology of societies such as the Inca empire that dominated South America 2,000 years later. Archaeoacoustics: An Archaeological Science Archaeoacoustics is a developing field that offers the acoustical community an op- portunity to work across disciplines to explore the significance of sound through- out time and across cultures. Archaeoacoustical discoveries often begin with the documentation and mechanical explanation of sound effects or the experimental testing of what can be heard from where. However, archaeology is about putting such findings in human context. Archaeology spans human time and is about understanding human experience through indirect evidence rather than direct accounts. From excavations of ar- 28 | Acoustics Today | Winter 2018 | volume 14, issue 4 ©2018 Acoustical Society of America. All rights reserved. Figure 1. Ancient sound- producing instruments. Shown are 2 examples of 3,000-year-old marine conch shell horns known as “pututus” excavated in 2001 as a cache of 20 at the Andean Formative cer- emonial center at Chavín de Huántar, Perú. Photographs courtesy of José L. Cruzado Coronel (left) and John W. Rick (right). Programa de Investigación Arqueológica y Conservación Chavín de Huántar. chitectural ruins to examinations of recently abandoned (2016) has explored sound effects at the Maya site Chichén places or discarded objects, archaeological discoveries stem Itzá, México, since 1998. Lubman’s approach to archaeo- from what archaeologists call material culture. An interdis- acoustics is exemplary in its melding of humanities per- ciplinary and anthropological social science, archaeology spectives, social science, and experimental and analytical reaches across fields to harness tools and expertise (Trigger, acoustical methods. In his work, nonacoustical background 2006). More than an application of acoustics to archaeology, research provides context for acoustical investigations. The archaeoacoustics mobilizes science, engineering, and hu- importance of archaeological context to archaeoacoustical manities research to produce archaeological interpretation. research should not be understated. Among the many sec- Through methods including experimental tests, analytical ondary accounts of Lubman’s research, some writers have models, and computational reconstructions, archaeoacous- devalued the anthropological information that Lubman con- ticians explore and demonstrate the dynamical potential siders in both research design and interpretation. Dismissal and sensory implications of archaeological materials. of nonacoustical forms of data that are culturally pertinent to an archaeoacoustical investigation demonstrates a basic There are numerous and diverse examples of excellent ar- misunderstanding of archaeology. Archaeologists interpret chaeoacoustics research (e.g., see case study discussions in materials in cultural contexts and physical settings to create Scarre and Lawson, 2006), best recounted by the research- narratives about plausible aspects of past human life from ers themselves. Here, I offer an overview of experimental ap- the “things” and places that were important to individuals, proaches to archaeoacoustics via firsthand accounts, includ- groups, and societies (Wiley, 2002). ing an interview with archaeoacoustics pioneer and Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) David Lubman. Lubman works independently of archaeological projects to An acoustical consultant, Lubman was awarded the Helm- explore the acoustics of places of persistent human interest. holtz-Rayleigh Interdisciplinary Silver Medal in Architectural Lubman’s method brings together knowledge from history, Acoustics and Noise by the ASA in 2004 for work in noise and literature, and auditory science, yet the driving impetus is standards and for contributions to architectural and archeo- his multifaceted acoustical engineering expertise. In 2007, logical
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