Revealing sounds from the stones

Dec 11 2008 by Neil Atkinson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

“By comparing results from paper calculations, computer simulations based on digital models, and results from the concrete Stonehenge copy, we were able to come up with some theories about the uses of Stonehenge.

“We have also been able to reproduce the sound of someone speaking or clapping in Stonehenge 5000 years ago”

Dr Till added: “There are two main theories about what Stonehenge was used for – one is that it was a healing space, the other that it was a place of the dead.

“Both imply ritual activity, but very little is actually known about the way people sang, danced or performed rituals there because these things left no trace in the archaeological record.

“However, our research shows that there are particular spots in the site that produce unusual particular acoustic effects, intimating that perhaps a priest or a shaman may have stood there, leading the ritual.

“People may have chanted or danced to a repetitive trance rhythm, at a specific tempo that we have been able to identify”.