acoustics
Article
Performance Space, Political Theater, and Audibility
in Downtown Chaco
David E. Witt 1, *
1
2
*
and Kristy E. Primeau 2
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14261-0026, USA
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY 12222, USA;
kprimeau@albany.edu
Correspondence: dwitt@buffalo.edu
Received: 6 November 2018; Accepted: 21 December 2018; Published: 27 December 2018
Abstract: Chaco Canyon, NM, USA, was the center of an Ancestral Puebloan polity from
approximately 850–1140 CE, and home to a dozen palatial structures known as “great houses”
and scores of ritual structures called “great kivas”. It is hypothesized that the 2.5 km2 centered on
the largest great house, Pueblo Bonito (i.e., “Downtown Chaco”), served as an open-air performance
space for both political theater and sacred ritual. The authors used soundshed modeling tools within
the Archaeoacoustics Toolbox to illustrate the extent of this performance space and the interaudibility
between various locations within Downtown Chaco. Architecture placed at liminal locations may
have inscribed sound in the landscape, physically marking the boundary of the open-air performance
space. Finally, the implications of considering sound within political theater will be discussed.
Keywords: archaeoacoustics; soundscapes; open-air performance space; political theater; Ancestral
Puebloan; Chaco Canyon
1. Introduction
Chaco Canyon, San Juan County, NM, USA, was the center of an Ancestral Puebloan (also known
as “Anasazi”) polity from approximately 850–1140 CE. This location was home to a dozen palatial
structures known as “great houses” and scores of ritual structures called “great kivas”. Most of these
were located in a 2.5 square kilometer region referred to as “Downtown Chaco”, centered on the largest
great house, Pueblo Bonito (Figure 1). We hypothesize that this downtown area served as an open-air
performance space for both political theater and sacred ritual. Indeed, it is believed that ritual and
politics were tightly bound together in Chaco, much like other early states, and similar to the nature of
leadership within modern Pueblo communities.
Our purpose for this paper is to further explore the relationship between the built environment of
Chaco and its soundscapes, a situation that we approached in various conference papers [1–3], and in
a previous article, “Soundscapes in the past: Investigating sound at the landscape level” [4]. In our
article, we reported that the physical relationship between modeled soundscapes and the locations
of shrines throughout the wider landscape may be evidence of ritual performance space, where the
shrines themselves marked the bounds of that space.
Our goals for this article are threefold. First, we briefly provide a literature review for those
unfamiliar with the study of archaeoacoustics, particularly how it relates to the landscape scale.
Secondly, we review the results of the initial study and then interpret those results with two linked
bodies of anthropological theory: performance theory and political theater. Performance theory
describes how activities gain their meaning in the context of group involvement [5], and political
theater describes how elites utilize performances to present themselves as they want to be seen in order
to legitimize their status [6]. These two interrelated theories can help researchers develop a stronger
Acoustics 2019, 1, 0; doi:10.3390/acoustics1010000
www.mdpi.com/journal/acoustics
Acoustics 2019, 1, 0
2 of 14
understanding of the nature of landscape experience at Chaco, illustrating how Chacoan elites may
have guided the construction of specific landscape features to both anchor and bound socio-cultural
performance space, and to serve as a stage for political theater for the legitimation of their roles. Finally,
we show how both of these functions interacted simultaneously to construct and reify political power
in the 10th and 11th century CE.
Figure 1. Map of “Downtown Chaco”, Chaco Canyon, NM, USA.
Background
Archaeoacoustics is the study of the evidence of sound in the archaeological record. This can be
achieved by studying the acoustical properties of artifacts, sites, or landscapes. An important method
for understanding past people and cultures, archaeoacoustics provides an integral, albeit often ignored,
component of the human experience. Most of the previous work on sound in the archaeological record
has focused on the artifactual or site level [7–24], yet recent research has expanded to the landscape
level [4,25–32].
Most recognized amongst landscape theories is phenomenology, an interpretive framework which
explains that landscapes are places where memory, meaning, and identity interweave as integral parts
of the lived experience [33–42]. Phenomenology, however, has been critiqued as methodologically
weak, as it has traditionally relied upon qualitative, personal observations [34,35,43–49]. Our
tools, described below, are being developed to answer this critique. Simultaneously, the tools also
respond to claims that Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and other “abstracted experiences” are
positivistic [39,50,51], by combining the strengths of both GIS and phenomenology to answer Tim
Ingold’s call that anthropologists adopt a greater awareness of the lived experience [52].
Our tools model the extent to which sounds, including those originating from the human voice
and musical instruments, can be heard throughout the wider landscape. We hypothesize Chacoan
elites to be practiced orators, able to speak for extended periods with a raised voice. For example, the
historic Zuni (a Puebloan group) maintained a Priest of the Sun: “whose title, Pekwin, means, literally,
Speaking Place . . . It is at the solstices that the sun is celebrated with great public ceremonies . . . In
winter the public ceremonies are opened by the Pekwin’s announcement made from the housetop at
dawn. At this time he orders the people to make prayer sticks for their sun father and their moon
mother” [53] (p. 512).
Acoustics 2019, 1, 0
3 of 14
Within the American Southwest, musical instruments have been recovered from the pre-Hispanic
period. These include bone flutes and whistles, wooden planks (i.e., “foot drums”), copper bells,
and conch shell trumpets [54–58]. These instruments are linked to ritual and public performances,
as illustrated by the ethnohistoric and archaeological records [57,59–62], as well as shown by use in
modern contexts [63]. These performances take place within ritually charged locations such as enclosed
kivas and open-air plazas. The recovery of conch shell trumpets and other instruments from similar
ritual contexts in the archaeological record may illustrate similar use in the pre-Hispanic period [59,64].
The importance of sound in the past has recently been recognized by archaeologists working in
the American Southwest, borrowing from researchers working in Europe and South America [15,30].
This recognition has primarily resulted from the work of Richard Loose, who has studied the acoustic
properties of artifacts (such as conch shell trumpets), structures (such as the great kiva at the Aztec
Ruins National Monument, San Juan County, NM, USA), and landscapes (such as Chaco Canyon
and Casamero Pueblo, McKinley County, NM, USA) [65–69], but the topic is now receiving wider
attention [4,25]. Within Chaco, the importance of sound is most clearly illustrated by Tse Biinaholtsa’a
Yałti, Navajo for “Concavity in the Bedrock that Speaks”. This feature is an alcove located on the
north wall between Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl, near the stone circle 29SJ1565. The alcove, which
was modified by the removal of approximately 360 m3 of bedrock, is associated with an altar and
rock art panel, and is considered a portal to the dimension of Navajo deities [65,70]. The projected
circle of the alcove’s amphitheater, some 340 m in diameter, is “clearly a delineated space that is level,
and conspicuously devoid of features and material culture” [70] (p. 206). Acoustical studies have
been conducted by Richard Loose and colleagues, illustrating that this site creates a “virtual sound
image” [68,69], resulting in a phenomenon that is described as filling the canyon floor with sound,
and “a sensation of being ‘bathed’ in sound as standing waves of sound formed along the axis of the
amphitheater” at certain frequencies [70] (p. 208). Other tests indicate the existence of other auditory
phenomena, including echoes, reverberations, and the cancelling out of sound at various locations [65].
From this feature, it seems obvious that sound was intentionally manipulated as an aspect of landscape
within Chaco Canyon and it likely played an important role in Chacoan rituals.
2. Modeling Methods
In 2016, we developed Soundshed Analysis Tool, beta version 0.9.2, part of an Archaeoacoustics
Toolbox which models the spread of sound throughout a landscape [1–4]. Written in the Python
programming language for ArcGIS 10.3, it is based upon SPreAD-GIS, a toolbox developed to model
the propagation of engine noise within wildland settings [71,72]. The following year the acoustical
modeling tool was updated [73,74], and the Archaeoacoustics Toolbox now includes preset versions
of the Soundshed Analysis Tool which utilize elevation datasets with 1, 1.5, and 30 m resolutions. In
addition, modeling at alternative resolutions is possible with minor adjustments to the Python script.
For this analysis, our soundsheds feature a 1.5 m resolution based on LiDAR data.
Modeling the spread of sound in a GIS environment places an emphasis on the spatial location and
extent of the soundshed, rather than a detailed acoustical reconstruction. This allows archaeologists
to incorporate acoustics into their analyses of relationships between sites and features within the
landscape, and study the cultural implications of those relationships. While noise analysis software can
be cost-prohibitive or otherwise inaccessible to archaeologists, GIS is a prevalently used tool that most
archaeologists can access and operate; we hope that, when complete, the Archaeoacoustics Toolbox will
introduce many archaeologists to acoustical modeling as an open-source addition to readily available
GIS software.
2.1. Model Inputs
Input variables for the model include environmental data and archaeologically derived cultural
data, as illustrated in Table 1. Environmental inputs include an elevation dataset and information used
to determine the physical characteristics of the spread of sound in air. These are typically gathered
Acoustics 2019, 1, 0
4 of 14
from the literature and include the percentage of relative humidity [75], the air temperature in degrees
Fahrenheit [75], and the ambient sound pressure level (dB(A)) of the study location [76]. Cultural data
describe the sound source. These consist of the location of the sound source, the output height (ft) of
the person or instrument creating the sound (which can be derived from osteological data and/or the
artifact assemblage), the sound pressure level of the source (dB(A)), the distance (ft) at which the sound
pressure level of the source was measured, and the frequency (Hz) representing the fundamental tone
or peak long-term average frequency at which the sound source was measured [66,77,78]. Specific
modeling inputs used for this paper are provided in Table 2.
Table 1. Soundshed Analysis Tool v0.9.2 Input Variables.
Environmental Inputs
Cultural Inputs
Percentage of Relative Humidity
Air Temperature (◦ F)
Ambient Sound Pressure Level (dB(A))
LiDAR-based DEM
Location of Sound Source
Height of Sound Source (ft)
Sound Pressure Level of Source (dB(A))
Measurement Distance of Source (ft)
Frequency of Source (Hz)
Table 2. Soundshed Analysis Tool v0.9.2 Modeling Inputs.
Modeling Inputs
Elite Orator with a
Raised Voice:
Afternoon in June
Conch Shell Trumpet:
Dawn in June
Environmental Inputs
Percentage of Relative Humidity
Air Temperature
Ambient Sound Pressure Level
30%
89.6 ◦ F (32 ◦ C)
20.7 dB(A)
30%
55.4 ◦ F (13 ◦ C)
20.7 dB(A)
Cultural Inputs
Height of Sound Source
Sound Pressure Level of Source
Measurement Distance of Source
Frequency of Source
5 ft (1.5 m)
84 dB(A)
3 ft (0.9 m)
325 Hz
6 ft (1.8 m)
96 dB(A)
4 ft (1.2 m)
330 Hz
2.2. Modeling Steps
The Soundshed Analysis Tool is a geometric-type model which assumes sound is travelling
through the air along straight-line paths. Currently, the model does not incorporate wave effects such as
reverberation which require more processing power than a 32-bit GIS environment presently provides.
The tool uses formulae of outdoor sound propagation, calculating free-field sound attenuation
following ISO 9613-2 [79], atmospheric absorption loss following ANSI 1.26 [80], topographic loss
following ISO 9613-2 [79], and barrier effects based on Maekawa’s optical diffraction theory [81,82].
The results are output in soundshed rasters that indicate audibility over background noise levels, and
provide a viewshed analysis for that site. Within this paper, “audibility” refers to the perception of
sounds and does not necessarily implicate the intelligibility of speech. Rasters can be created for any
frequency, however the examples presented herein match the fundamental tone or peak long-term
average frequency of the sound source. Each study location is modeled independently, although a
second tool being developed for inclusion in the Archaeoacoustics Toolbox can create cumulative
soundsheds for sound sources propagating from multiple landscape locations simultaneously. Due to
the environmental nature of the Chacoan landscape, vegetation attenuation and ground effects are not
modeled in v0.9.2, however the script is currently under revision to include these calculations following
ISO 9613-2 [79,83]. Absorption due to structural surfaces is also not modeled in the current tool.
3. Modeling Results
Using the above described tool and inputs, we modeled the spread of sound emanating from
various sources at locations throughout Chaco Canyon [4]. Here, we continue the discussion by
drawing attention to one specific location, the two platform mounds located immediately south of and
in front of Pueblo Bonito, the largest great house in the Puebloan world, measuring approximately 90
Acoustics 2019, 1, 0
5 of 14
by 150 m, or 1.2 ha in size (Figures 2 and 3). At this location, we modeled two scenarios: a practiced
orator addressing a crowd, and an individual playing a conch shell trumpet.
Figure 2. Eastern platform mound at Pueblo Bonito (covered by vegetation). Man provided for scale.
Figure 3. Reconstruction of the Pueblo Bonito architecture. Reproduced with permission from Richard
Friedman, in The Architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; published by University of Utah
Press, 2007.
The platform mounds were important features of the landscape. The 3–4 m tall, rectangular
mounds were constructed during the Classic Bonito Phase, from 1040–1100 CE, as indicated by
ceramic dating [84,85]. The mounds were built up with adobe embankments, steps, and masonry
retaining walls [84,86,87], as interpreted in Figure 3. The mounds contained artifacts that mostly reflect
household refuse, with equivocal evidence for large scale feasting and specialized production [88,89].
However, the presence of relatively larger numbers of exotic goods such as turquoise, Narbona Pass
chert, cacao residue, and macaw remains reinforce claims that Pueblo Bonito was a residence of
Chacoan elites, and may indicate that ritual deposition occurred here [90].
Our scenarios were modeled at this location because the platform mounds were earthen
architecture that were intentionally built. Researchers have hypothesized that the mounds are ritually
charged due to their astronomical alignments, location, directionality, and ability to direct access to
Pueblo Bonito [87,91–94]. While others have argued that the features, which were constructed of
Acoustics 2019, 1, 0
6 of 14
household refuse, resulted from the occupation of Pueblo Bonito, they are too large to be the result
of only the relatively small population of the great house [95,96] and must have included imported
materials. However, even if these mounds were merely domestic middens (or were meant to replicate
domestic middens in some sense), they may still have been considered sacred places as middens were
often the location of burials. Indeed, modern Puebloan people consider middens to be sacred for that
reason [97,98]. Nevertheless, these mounds were important and may have served as performance
stages, similar to Mesoamerican pyramids and Hohokam platforms [99]. Ruth Van Dyke states:
“Standing atop them, with the great house and the north face of Chaco Canyon towering behind, ritual
leaders would have been a very impressive sight. Ceremonies performed atop the mounds would
have been highly visible to masses of people who, perhaps, did not have access into the great house
itself” [97] (p. 130). For these reasons, we consider the mounds to be more than mere trash dumps (see
also [100] for a discussion on the similar role of plazas in later Puebloan sites).
The modeling results are presented in Figures 4 and 5. The figures illustrate the amount by which
the two sounds rise over ambient noise levels; hence, they also indicate a positive signal-to-noise ratio.
While our study does not approach speech intelligibility as a specific topic of investigation, work by
Alvarsson and his colleagues has shown that the signal-to-noise ratio is highly correlated to the Speech
Intelligibility Index (SII) and may be used as a proxy of the SII outdoors [101].
Figure 4. Soundshed of an elite orator speaking at 84 dB(A) with a peak long-term average frequency
of 325 Hz.
Acoustics 2019, 1, 0
7 of 14
Figure 5. Soundshed of reconstructed conch shell trumpet at 96 dB and a fundamental tone of 330 Hz.
Figure 4 represents a person standing on the eastern mound (9), speaking loudly as if orating to a
crowd. Studies have shown that male speakers accustomed to oration, such as actors or preachers,
have reached a maximum vocal level of 90 dB(A) when addressing a crowd [102–104]. This individual,
with a vocal level of 84 dB(A) and a peak long-term average frequency of 325 Hz, could be heard
throughout Downtown Chaco. Using the signal-to-noise ratio as a proxy for SII, the 5 dB(A) contour,
indicated by the abrupt shift between the orange and yellow shading, would equate to an approximate
SII of 0.6 in a free field according to modeling conducted by Larm and Hongisto [105] (Figure 12 in
the reference). Furthermore, Lazarus [106] (Figure 1 in the reference) and Jovičić [107] (Figure 5 in
the reference) indicate that a signal-to-noise ratio of 5 dB(A) would equate to an approximate speech
intelligibility (SI) score greater than 80 and 85 percent, respectively. Therefore, Figure 4 also indicates
the extent to which an individual’s speech may have been understood over environmental background
noise given an absence of intervening noise sources, illustrating an approximate degree of speech
intelligibility at the Pueblo Bonito (7), Pueblo del Arroyo (6), and Chetro Ketl (8) great houses, as well
as the Casa Rinconada great kiva (10). Additionally, people at Kin Kletso (5) may have been able to
hear the individual if they listened carefully for the sound of his voice, but likely would not have been
able to understand what he was saying, as Kin Kletso is located beyond the contour indicating the SII
of 0.6.
Figure 5 shows the spread of sound from a conch shell trumpet, an instrument that has been
recovered in association with elite burials in Pueblo Bonito [59,66,108], and which was used in historic
Puebloan rituals [59]. As illustrated by these figures, the sound of a reproduction trumpet, with an
output of 96 dB and a fundamental tone of 330 Hz, spreads an additional 435 m beyond the output
indicated by Figure 4, and individuals at the 29SJ1207 shrine overlooking the canyon from the south
Acoustics 2019, 1, 0
8 of 14
would have been able to hear the instrument. Additionally, individuals at the 29SJ1565 and 29SJ1572
stone circles on the north canyon rim may have heard both events. These shrines, in effect, inscribe
and demarcate sound within the Chacoan landscape.
4. Discussion
We interpret these results through complementary aspects of performance theory and political
theater. As mentioned previously, performance theory describes how activities gain their meaning
in the context of group involvement [5]. Similarly, political theater describes how elites utilize
performances to legitimize their status [6]. Thomas Luckman stated that “legitimation is making
sense of power...to those who exercise power, to those who are subject to the exercise of power, or
to both” [109] (p. 111). Inomata and Coben discuss the relationship between performance theory
and political theater: “it is probably true that the development of large, centralized polities would
have been impossible in any historical context without frequent public events, in which agents of
political power presented themselves in front of a large number of spectators and the participants
shared experiences through their bodily copresence” [5] (p. 11). Furthermore, “these events have
profound implications for the understanding of any society, particularly in terms of the integration
of communities and the establishment and maintenance of asymmetrical power relations, which are
intricately intertwined with each other” [5] (p. 22). We believe that this is true for Chaco, and that the
mounds in front of the largest great house served as a stage for these public events.
The involvement of the community (or, at least, various portions of the community) as audience
within these events was a key requirement for the creation, reinforcement, and manipulation of power
relations between elites and non-elites, as well as among different elites [110,111]. The mounds, as
illustrated by our modeling, would have served as ideal locations for political theater. The audience
would have included all within Downtown Chaco, not only the other leaders that occupied the various
great houses in the vicinity, but also the commoners that lived within small sites throughout the area.
Yet Downtown Chaco was not merely the location of political theater. Whiteley stated that “ritual
action, because of its intent to affect instrumentally the conditions of existence, is simultaneously
political action” [112] (p. 68). We believe the converse may also be true at Chaco, especially considering
how political power at the location has been so intimately tied up with ritual [113]. Therefore, the
performance space of Downtown Chaco was also sacred space. Although the soundshed should
be considered circumstantial evidence, the above illustrated locations of shrines and stone circles in
relationship to the mounds’ soundshed provide additional evidence for this claim.
However, the concepts of political theater and elite legitimation only begin to explore the meaning
behind these platforms, and for this we return to performance theory. As mentioned earlier, these
mounds contained more material than could be contributed by the occupants of Pueblo Bonito
alone [96]. This material included trade items from throughout the Chacoan sphere, as well as
much farther afield: Narbona pass chert, Chuska Gray Ware pottery, macaw remains, and cacao
residue within rare ceramic vessel forms have been recovered from the mounds [88]. Yet as the
papers within Crown’s 2016 volume, “The Pueblo Bonito Mounds of Chaco Canyon”, illustrate, the
majority of the artifacts recovered from the mounds reflect normal, non-elite residential patterns. It
is likely that debris from throughout the canyon’s small house residences, as well as from visitors
from throughout the American Southwest, was purposefully accumulated over the course of sixty
years during occasional communal feasting and its accompanying performances of conspicuous
consumption and ritual deposition.
As these platform mounds were constructed, the people of Chaco Canyon were in essence
forming the stage for the political theater enacted by the elites of Pueblo Bonito. When seen in this
light, instances of communal feasting take on a much more nuanced interpretation. Not only were
these occasions organized by the elites (and thus served to formalize their role in comparison to others),
but they physically shaped the political and sacred performance space utilized by those elites. As
the mounds were created, not only did they become prominent features of the Chacoan landscape,
Acoustics 2019, 1, 0
9 of 14
but the extent of their soundscapes grew to encompass Downtown Chaco. If this soundscape is
interpreted as an integral part of the legitimation of the Chacoan religious and political system, it was
the performances of the Puebloan people themselves that reinforced the elite power structures.
5. Conclusions
As illustrated, specific features within a landscape can provide clues as to how people related to
that place. While the platform mounds at Pueblo Bonito imply aspects of political theater and public
performance, placing those features into a context of landscape archaeoacoustics highlights just how
important a role they played within Chacoan society and culture. The mounds were constructed in an
ideal location to serve as the stage for political theater that would have been observed by all within
Downtown Chaco and perhaps farther afield. Their construction was an act of public performance,
indicating that both elite and non-elite individuals participated in the creation of that stage and its
resulting soundshed.
Sound is an integral part of the lived experience, and one that is becoming increasingly
acknowledged by archaeologists. Chaco Canyon provides an example of just how important it
may have been during the development of complex societies.
Author Contributions: Individual author contributions are as follows: conceptualization, D.E.W.; methodology,
D.E.W., K.E.P.; software, K.E.P.; writing—original draft preparation, D.E.W., K.E.P.; writing—review and editing,
D.E.W., K.E.P.; visualization, K.E.P.
Funding: This research received no external funding.
Acknowledgments: The authors would like to acknowledge Ruth Van Dyke and Kyle Bocinsky for providing
GPS data, Rich Friedman for permission to use Figure 3, and Tommaso Mattioli for an invitation to present at a
2018 EAA session on Archaeoacoustics, which provided the impetus for this paper. David would like to thank his
parents for a relatively undisturbed place in which he wrote the initial draft of this article during a vacation to
visit family. Likewise, Kristy thanks Thomas Dyson for the same. David would also like to thank Ed Kandl for
serving as a scale bar in Figure 2. Finally, the authors thank the three anonymous reviewers for their feedback,
which has resulted in a stronger paper.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. As there is no outside funding, no additional
person or organization had a role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in
the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.
References
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Primeau, K.E.; Witt, D.E. Soundscapes in the Past: Towards a Phenomenology of Sound at the Landscape
Level. Presented at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Orlando, FL, USA,
6–10 April 2016.
Primeau, K.E.; Witt, D.E. Soundscapes in the Past: A GIS Approach to Landscape Scale Archaeoacoustics.
Presented at the Frontiers in Archaeological Sciences Symposium, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ,
USA, 23–25 October 2017.
Witt, D.E.; Primeau, K.E. Soundscapes in the Past: Interaudibility in the Chacoan Built Landscape. Presented
at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 29 March–2
April 2017.
Primeau, K.E.; Witt, D.E. Soundscapes in the Past: Investigating Sound at the Landscape Level. J. Archaeol.
Sci. Rep. 2018, 19, 875–885. [CrossRef]
Inomata, T.; Coben, L.S. Overture: An Invitation to the Archaeological Theater. In Archaeology of Performance:
Theaters of Power, Community, and Politics; Inomata, T., Coben, L.S., Eds.; Altamira Press: Lanham, MD, USA,
2006; pp. 11–44.
Scott, J.C. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts; Yale University Press: New Haven, CT,
USA, 1990.
Cross, I.; Zubrow, E.B.W.; Cowan, F. Musical behaviours and the archaeological record: A preliminary study.
In Experimental Archaeology; Mathieu, J., Ed.; British Archaeological Reports: Oxford, UK, 2002; pp. 25–34.
Cross, I.; Watson, A. Acoustics and the human experience of socially-organized sound. In Archaeoacoustics;
Scarre, C., Lawson, G., Eds.; Oxbow Books: Oxford, UK, 2006; pp. 107–115.
Acoustics 2019, 1, 0
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
10 of 14
D’Errico, F.; Lawson, G. The sound paradox: How to assess the acoustic significance of archaeological
evidence? In Archaeoacoustics; Scarre, C., Lawson, G., Eds.; Oxbow Books: Oxford, UK, 2006; pp. 41–57.
Devereux, P. Stone Age Soundtracks: The Acoustic Archaeology of Ancient Sites; Vega: London, UK, 2002.
Eneix, L.C. (Ed.) Archaeoacoustics: The Archaeology of Sound; The OTS Foundation: Myakka City, FL, USA,
2014.
Jimenez, R.; Till, R.; Howell, M. (Eds.) Music & Ritual: Bridging Material & Living Cultures; Ekho Verlag:
Berlin, Germany, 2013.
Scarre, C. Sound, place and space: Towards an archaeology of acoustics. In Archaeoacoustics; Scarre, C.,
Lawson, G., Eds.; Oxbow Books: Oxford, UK, 2006; pp. 1–10.
Watson, A.; Keating, D. Architecture and sound: An acoustic analysis of megalithic monuments in prehistoric
Britain. Antiquity 1999, 73, 325–336. [CrossRef]
Kolar, M.A. Sensing sonically at Andean Formative Chavín de Huántar, Perú. Time Mind 2017, 10, 39–59.
[CrossRef]
Azevedo, M.; Markham, B.; Wall, J.N. Acoustical archaeology—Recreating the soundscape of John Donne’s
1622 gunpowder plot sermon at Paul’s Cross. Proc. Meet. Acoust. 2013, 19, 015133. [CrossRef]
Markham, B.; Azevedo, M.; Wall, J.N. Recreating the soundscape of John Donne’s 1622 gunpowder plot
sermon at Paul’s Cross. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2013, 133, 3581. [CrossRef]
Wall, J.N. Transforming the Object of our Study: The Early Modern Sermon and the Virtual Paul’s Cross
Project. Available online: http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org/3-1/transforming-the-object-of-our-studyby-john-n-wall/ (accessed on 24 December 2018).
Reznikoff, I. Sound resonance in prehistoric times: A study of Paleolithic painted caves and rocks. J. Acoust.
Soc. Am. 2008, 123, 3603. [CrossRef]
Jahn, R.G.; Devereux, P.; Ibison, M. Acoustical resonances of assorted ancient structures. J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
1996, 99, 649–658. [CrossRef]
Iannace, G.; Trematerra, A.; Qandil, A. The Acoustics of the Catacombs. Arch. Acoust. 2014, 39, 583–590.
[CrossRef]
Iannace, G.; Berardi, U. The Acoustic of Cumaean Sibyl. Proc. Meet. Acoust. 2017, 30, 015010. [CrossRef]
Iannace, G.; Marletta, L.; Sicurella, F.; Ianniello, E. Acoustic measurements in the Ear of Dionysius at
Syracuse (Italy). In Proceedings of the 39th International Congress on Noise Control Engineering 2010,
Lisbon, Portugal, 13–16 June 2010.
Kolar, M.A. Archaeological Psychoacoustics at Chavín de Huántar, Perú. Ph.D. Dissertation, Stanford
University, Stanford, CA, USA, 2013.
Van Dyke, R.M.; de Smet, T. Chacoan Soundscapes. Archaeol. Southwest Mag. 2018, 32, 38–39.
Díaz-Andreu, M.; García Benito, C. Acoustics and Levantine rock art: Auditory perceptions in La Valltorta
Gorge (Spain). J. Archaeol. Sci. 2012, 39, 3591–3599. [CrossRef]
Mattioli, T.; Farina, A.; Armelloni, E.; Hameau, P.; Díaz-Andreu, M. Echoing landscapes: Echolocation and
the placement of rock art in the Central Mediterranean. J. Archaeol. Sci. 2017, 83, 12–25. [CrossRef]
Díaz-Andreu, M.; Atiénzar, G.G.; Benito, C.G.; Mattioli, T. Do You Hear What I See? Analyzing Visibility
and Audibility in the Rock Art Landscape of the Alicante Mountains of Spain. J. Anthropol. Res. 2017, 73,
181–213. [CrossRef]
Mileson, S. Sound and Landscape. In The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain;
Christopher, G., Alejandra, G., Eds.; Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, 2018; pp. 713–727.
Mlekuz, D. Listening to landscapes: Modelling past soundscapes in GIS. Internet Archaeol. 2004, 16. [CrossRef]
Liwosz, C.R. Benchmarks: Ontological Considerations at Two Mojave Desert Petroglyph Labyrinths. Ph.D.
Dissertation, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA, 2018.
Mattioli, T.; Díaz-Andreu, M. Hearing rock art landscapes: A survey of the acoustical perception in the Sierra
de San Serván area in Extremadura (Spain). Time Mind 2017, 10, 81–96. [CrossRef]
Brück, J. Experiencing the past? The development of a phenomenological archaeology in British prehistory.
Archaeol. Dialogues 2005, 12, 45–72. [CrossRef]
Cummings, V.; Whittle, A. Places of Special Virtue: Megaliths in the Neolithic Landscape of Wales; Oxbow Books:
Oxford, UK, 2004.
Johnson, M.H. Phenomenological Approaches in Landscape Archaeology. Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2012, 41,
269–284. [CrossRef]
Acoustics 2019, 1, 0
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
11 of 14
Tilley, C. A Phenomenology of Landscape; Routledge: London, UK, 1994.
Tilley, C. The Materiality of Stone: Explorations in Landscape Phenomenology; Berg: Oxford, UK, 2004.
Tilley, C. Body and Image: Explorations in Landscape Phenomenology 2; Left Coast Press: Walnut Creek, CA,
USA, 2008.
Tilley, C. Interpreting Landscapes: Geologies, Topographies, Identities; Explorations in Landscape Phenomenology 3;
Left Coast Press: Walnut Creek, CA, USA, 2010.
Van Dyke, R.M. Phenomenology in archaeology. In Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology; Smith, C., Ed.; Springer:
New York, NY, USA, 2014; pp. 5909–5917.
Hamilakis, Y. Archaeology and the Senses: Human Experience, Memory, and Affect; Cambridge University Press:
New York, NY, USA, 2013.
Merleau-Ponty, M. Phenomenology of Perception; Routledge: London, UK, 1962.
Hamilton, S.; Whitehouse, R.; Brown, K.; Combes, P.; Herring, E.; Thomas, M.S. Phenomenology in practice:
Towards a methodology for a ‘subjective’ approach. Eur. J. Archaeol. 2006, 9, 31–71. [CrossRef]
Eve, S. Augmenting Phenomenology: Using Augmented Reality to Aid Archaeological Phenomenology in
the Landscape. J. Archaeol. Method Theory 2012, 19, 582–600. [CrossRef]
Gillings, M. Landscape Phenomenology, GIS and the Role of Affordance. J. Archaeol. Method Theory 2012, 19,
601–611. [CrossRef]
Llobera, M. Life on a Pixel: Challenges in the Development of Digital Methods Within an “Interpretive”
Landscape Archaeology Framework. J. Archaeol. Method Theory 2012, 19, 495–509. [CrossRef]
Rennell, R. Experience and GIS: Exploring the Potential for Methodological Dialogue. J. Archaeol. Method
Theory 2012, 19, 510–525. [CrossRef]
Trigg, D. Place and Non-place: A Phenomenological Perspective. In Place, Space, and Hermeneutics; Janz, B.B.,
Ed.; Springer: Cham, Switzerland, 2017; pp. 127–139.
Trigger, B.G. A History of Archaeological Thought, 2nd ed.; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2006.
Hacigüzeller, P. GIS, critique, representation and beyond. J. Soc. Archaeol. 2012, 12, 245–263. [CrossRef]
Sui, D.Z. GIS and Urban Studies: Positivism, Post-Positivism, and Beyond. Urban Geogr. 1994, 15, 258–278.
[CrossRef]
Ingold, T. The Perception of the Environment; Routledge: London, UK, 2000.
Bunzel, R.L. Zuni Ceremonialism; University of New Mexico Press: Albuquerque, NM, USA, 1992.
Brown, D.N. The Distribution of Sound Instruments in the Prehistoric Southwestern United States.
Ethnomusicology 1967, 11, 71–90. [CrossRef]
Brown, E. Instruments of Power: Musical Performance in Rituals of the Ancestral Puebloans of the American
Southwest. Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University, University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, 2005.
Brown, E. Musical instruments in the pre-hispanic southwest. Park Sci. 2009, 26, 46–49.
Brown, E. Music of the center place: The instruments of Chaco Canyon. In Flower World: Music Archaeology of
the Americas; Stöckli, M., Howell, M., Eds.; Ekho Verlag: Berlin, Germany, 2014; Volume 3, pp. 45–66.
Brown, D.N. Ethnomusicology and the prehistoric southwest. Ethnomusicology 1971, 15, 363–378. [CrossRef]
Mills, B.J.; Ferguson, T.J. Animate objects: Shell trumpets and ritual networks in the greater southwest. J.
Archaeol. Method Theory 2008, 15, 338–361. [CrossRef]
Taube, K. Gateways to Another World: The Symbolism of Supernatural Passageways in the Art and Ritual
of Mesoamerican and the American Southwest. In Painting the Cosmos: Metaphor and Worldview in Images
from the Southwest Pueblos and Mexico; Hays-Gilpin, K., Schaafsma, P., Eds.; Museum of Northern Arizona:
Flagstaff, AZ, USA, 2010; pp. 73–120.
Hays-Gilpin, K.; Sekaquaptewa, E.; Newsome, E.A. Sìitalpuva, “through the land brightened with flowers”:
Ecology and cosmology in mural and pottery painting, Hopi and beyond. In Painting the Cosmos: Metaphor
and Worldview in Images From the Southwest Pueblos and Mexico; Hays-Gilpin, K., Schaafsma, P., Eds.; Museum
of Northern Arizona: Flagstaff, AZ, USA, 2010; pp. 121–138.
Weiner, R.S. A Sensory Approach to Exotica, Ritual Practice, and Cosmology at Chaco Canyon. Kiva 2015, 81,
220–246. [CrossRef]
Van Dyke, R.M. The Chacoan past: Creative representations and sensory engagements. In Subjects and
Narratives in Archaeology; Dyke, R.M.V., Bernbeck, R., Eds.; University Press of Colorado: Boulder, CO, USA,
2015; pp. 83–99.
Acoustics 2019, 1, 0
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.
76.
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
12 of 14
Akins, N.J. The burials of Pueblo Bonito. In Pueblo Bonito: Center of the Chacoan World; Neitzel, J.E., Ed.;
Smithsonian Books: Washington, DC, USA, 2003; pp. 94–106.
Loose, R.W. Tse’Biinaholts’a Yalti (Curved Rock That Speaks). Time Mind 2008, 1, 31–49. [CrossRef]
Loose, R.W. That old music: Reproduction of a shell trumpet from Pueblo Bonito. Pap. Archaeol. Soc. N. M.
2012, 38, 127–133.
Loose, R.W. Archaeoacoustics: Adding a Sound Track to Site Descriptions. Pap. Archaeol. Soc. N. M. 2010, 36,
127–136.
Loose, R.W. A Report on Tse Biinaholtsa’a Yałti (Curved Rock that Speaks): An Open-Air Public Performance Theater
at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; Manuscript on File; Chaco Culture National Historical Park: New Mexico, NM,
USA, 2001.
Loose, R.W. Computer Analysis of Sound Recordings from Two Anasazi Sites in Northwestern New Mexico.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2002, 112, 2285. [CrossRef]
Stein, J.R.; Friedman, R.; Blackhorse, T.; Loose, R. Revisiting Downtown Chaco. In The Architecture of
Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; Lekson, S.H., Ed.; The University of Utah Press: Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2007;
pp. 199–223.
Reed, S.E.; Mann, J.P.; Boggs, J.L. SPreAD-GIS: An ArcGIS Toolbox for Modeling the Propagation of Engine Noise
in a Wildland Setting, version 1.2; The Wilderness Society: San Francisco, CA, USA, 2009.
Reed, S.E.; Boggs, J.L.; Mann, J.P. SPreAD-GIS: An ArcGIS Toolbox for Modeling the Propagation of Engine Noise
in a Wildland Setting, version 2.0; The Wilderness Society: San Francisco, CA, USA, 2010.
Goodwin, G.; Richards-Rissetto, H.; Primeau, K.E.; Witt, D.E. Bringing Sound into the Picture: Experiencing
Ancient Maya Landscapes with GIS and 3D Modeling. Presented at the Computer Applications and
Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) International Conference, Tübingen, Germany, 19–23 March
2018.
Goodwin, G.; Richards-Rissetto, H.; Primeau, K.E.; Witt, D.E. Soundscapes and Visionscapes: Investigating
Ancient Maya Cities with GIS and 3D Modeling. Presented at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for
American Archaeology, Washington, DC, USA, 11–15 April 2018.
Western Regional Climate Center. Chaco Canyon National Monument [sic], New Mexico, Monthly
Climate Summary. Available online: http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?nm1647 (accessed on 7
December 2018).
Ambrose, S. Sound Levels in the Primary Vegetation Types in Grand Canyon National Park, July 2005; NPS Report
No. GRCA-05-02; Sandhill Company: Washington, DC, USA, 2006.
Hayne, M.J.; Rumble, R.H.; Mee, D.J. Prediction of crowd noise. In Proceedings of the Acoustics 2006,
Christchurch, New Zealand, 20–22 November 2006; pp. 235–240.
Van Heusden, E.; Plomp, R.; Pols, L.C.W. Effect of ambient noise on the vocal output and the preferred
listening level of conversational speech. Appl. Acoust. 1979, 12, 31–43. [CrossRef]
Organización Internacional de Normalización. ISO 9613-2:1996, Acoustics: Attenuation of Sound during
Propagation Outdors. General Method of Calculation; International Organization for Standardization: Geneva,
Switzerland, 1996.
American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ANSI S1.26-1995 Method for Calculation of the Absorption of
Sound by the Atmosphere; Acoustical Society of America: New York City, NY, USA, 1995.
Maekawa, Z. Noise reduction by screens. Appl. Acoust. 1968, 1, 157–173. [CrossRef]
Lamancusa, J.S. Outdoor sound propagation. In Noise Control, ME 458 Engineering Noise Control; Pennsylvania
State University: University Park, PA, USA, 2009.
Primeau, K.E. Methodological Improvements in Landscape Archaeoacoustics: Exploring the Effects of
Vegetation and Ground Cover. Presented at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American
Archaeology, Albuquerque, NM, USA, 10–14 April 2019.
Judd, N.M. The Architecture of Pueblo Bonito; Smithsonian Institution Press: Washington, DC, USA, 1964;
Volume 147.
Windes, T.C. Investigations at the Pueblo Alto Complex, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, 1975–1979; National Park
Service: Sante Fe, NM, USA, 1987; Volume II, Pt. 2: Architecture and Stratigraphy.
Lekson, S.H. Great House Form. In The Architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; Lekson, S.H., Ed.; The
University of Utah Press: Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2007; pp. 7–44.
Acoustics 2019, 1, 0
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
97.
98.
99.
100.
101.
102.
103.
104.
105.
106.
107.
108.
109.
110.
111.
13 of 14
Stein, J.R.; Lekson, S.H. Anasazi Ritual Landscapes. In Anasazi Regional Organization and the Chaco System;
Doyel, D.E., Ed.; University of New Mexico: Albuquerque, NM, USA, 1992; pp. 87–100.
Crown, P.L. (Ed.) The Pueblo Bonito Mounds of Chaco Canyon; University of New Mexico Press: Albuquerque,
NM, USA, 2016.
Toll, H.W. Making and Breaking Pots in the Chaco World. Am. Antiq. 2001, 66, 56–78. [CrossRef]
Cameron, C.M. Pink Chert, Projectile Points, and the Chacoan Regional System. Am. Antiq. 2001, 66, 79–101.
[CrossRef]
Ashmore, W. Building Social History at Pueblo Bonito: Footnotes to a Biography of Place. In The Architecture
of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; Lekson, S.H., Ed.; The University of Utah Press: Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2007;
pp. 179–198.
Marshall, M.P. The Chacoan Roads: A Cosmological Interpretation. In Anasazi Architecture and American
Design; Morrow, B.H., Price, V.B., Eds.; University of New Mexico: Albuquerque, NM, USA, 1997; pp. 62–74.
Sofaer, A. The Primary Architecture of the Chacoan Culture: A Cosmological Expression. In Anasazi
Architecture and American Design; Morrow, B.H., Price, V.B., Eds.; University of New Mexico Press:
Albuquerque, NM, USA, 1997; pp. 88–132.
Van Dyke, R.M. Sacred Landscapes: The Chaco-Totah Connection. In Chaco’s Northern Prodigies: Salmon,
Aztec, and the Ascendancy of the Middle San Juan Region after AD 1100; Reed, P.F., Ed.; The University of Utah
Press: Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2008; pp. 334–348.
Wills, W.H. Ritual and Mound Formation during the Bonito Phase in Chaco Canyon. Am. Antiq. 2001, 66,
433–451. [CrossRef]
Windes, T.C. Gearing Up and Piling On: Early Great Houses in the Interior San Juan Basin. In The Architecture
of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; Lekson, S.H., Ed.; The University of Utah Press: Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2007;
pp. 45–92.
Van Dyke, R.M. The Chaco Experience: Landscape and Ideology at the Center Place; School for Advanced Research
Press: Santa Fe, NM, USA, 2008.
Cameron, C.M. Sacred Earthen Architecture in the Northern Southwest: The Bluff Great House Berm. Am.
Antiq. 2002, 67, 677–695. [CrossRef]
Lekson, S.H. A History of the Ancient Southwest; School for Advanced Research Press: Santa Fe, NM, USA,
2008.
Chamberlin, M.A. Plazas, Performance, and Symbolic Power in Ancestral Pueblo Religion. In Religious
Transformation in the Late Pre-Hispanic Pueblo World; Glowacki, D.M., Keuren, S.V., Eds.; University of Arizona
Press: Tucson, ZA, USA, 2012; pp. 130–152.
Alvarsson, J.J.; Nordström, H.; Lundén, P.; Nilsson, M.E. Aircraft noise and speech intelligibility in an
outdoor living space. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2014, 135, 3455–3462. [CrossRef]
Boren, B. Whitefield’s Voice. In George Whitefield; Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, 2016; pp. 167–189.
Boren, B. The Maximum Intelligible Range of the Human Voice. Ph.D. Dissertation, New York University,
New York, NY, USA, 2014.
Boren, B.; Roginska, A.; Gill, B. Maximum Averaged and Peak Levels of Vocal Sound Pressure. In Proceedings
of the 135th Audio Engineering Society Convention, New York, NY, USA, 17–20 October 2013.
Larm, P.; Hongisto, V. Experimental comparison between speech transmission index, rapid speech
transmission index, and speech intelligibility index. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2006, 119, 1106–1117. [CrossRef]
[PubMed]
Lazarus, H. Prediction of Verbal Communication is Noise—A review: Part 1. Appl. Acoust. 1986, 19, 439–464.
[CrossRef]
Jovičić, S.T. A relation between speech intelligibility and distribution of speech pressure about the head.
Appl. Acoust. 1991, 34, 51–59. [CrossRef]
Judd, N.M. The Material Culture of Pueblo Bonito; Smithsonian Institution Press: Washington, DC, USA, 1954;
Volume 124.
Luckman, T. Comments on Legitimation. Curr. Sociol. 1987, 35, 109–117. [CrossRef]
Barker, R. Legitimating Identities: The Self-Presentations of Rulers and Subjects; Cambridge University Press:
Cambridge, UK, 2004.
Brown, J.; Elliot, J.H. A Palace for a King: The Buen Retiro and the Court of Philip IV; Yale University Press:
New Haven, CT, USA, 1980.
Acoustics 2019, 1, 0
14 of 14
112. Whiteley, P.M. Deliberate Acts: Changing Hopi Culture through the Oraibi Split; University of Arizona Press:
Tucson, AZ, USA, 1988.
113. Yoffee, N. The Chaco “Rituality” Revisited. In Chaco Society and Polity: Papers from the 1999 Conference;
Cordell, L.S., Judge, W.J., Piper, J.-E., Eds.; New Mexico Archaeological Council: Albuquerque, NM, USA,
2001; pp. 63–78.
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).