Archaeoacoustics around the World: A Literature Review (2016–2022)

Abstract

Acoustics has been integrated with archaeology to better understand the social and cultural context of past cultures. Specifically, public events such as rituals or ceremonies, where an appreciation of sound propagation was required to hold an event. Various acoustic techniques have been used to study archaeological sites, providing information about the building characteristics and organizational structures of ancient civilizations. This review aims to present recent advances in Archaeoacoustics worldwide over the last seven years (2016–2022). For this purpose, one hundred and five articles were identified and categorized into two topics: (1) Archaeoacoustics in places, and (2) Archaeoacoustics of musical instruments and pieces. In the first topic, three subtopics were identified: (1) measurement and characterization of places, (2) rock art, and (3) simulation, auralization, and virtualization. Regarding the first subtopic, it was identified that the standards for reverberation times in enclosures are generally applied in their development. In the second subtopic, it was determined that the places selected to make paintings were areas with long reverberation time. The last subtopic, simulation, auralization, and virtualization, is the area of most remarkable growth and innovation. Finally, this review opens the debate to seek standardization of a measurement method that allows comparing results from different investigations.