Years of experiments at rock art sites in Finland have revealed that the echoes produced by smooth cliff faces may have influenced the neolithic people in that area. The artists behind the rock art and the people that later came to admire the figures would have experienced an spiritual sound, according to a recent study published in Sound Studies.
“We almost know nothing about sound in prehistoric times,” says Riitta Rainio, an archaeologist at the University of Helsinki.
Stone Age Rock Art in Finland
Most of the rock art in Finland dating to the Stone Age, that Rainio and her colleagues examined, was painted between 3,000 years and 7,000 years ago. The art that survives today uses a color red, which comes from mixing iron oxide taken from the soil.
The most common motifs are moose, or elk, humans and boats, and sometimes a mixture of these figures. Some show humans with antlers on their head, or boats with the head and legs of moose.
“Those figures are telling about human-animal relationships in some way,” Rainio says, adding that other archaeological evidence has revealed that Stone Age people in Finland specialized in moose hunting.
Värikallio rock paintings are some of the most famous examples of Stone Age rock art in Finland. Because some of the paintings depict a person drumming with their hands, researchers suggest the neolithic people practiced rituals in these areas. Most of the art was also painted on open cliff faces that rise out of water, which makes great surfaces for creating echoes.
Examining Rock Art and Echoes
Rainio and her colleagues set up speakers and sound recorders to determine how well the sound echoed first at Julma-Ölkky, a rock art site in Hossa National Park, and then at a series of 37 rock art sites in Finland over 10 years using special rafts.
At these sites, the researchers played generic sounds from speakers to test the echo of different sites, as well as the sounds of voices talking and even singing, which was performed sometimes by folk artists.
“It’s not a good idea to go close to the cliffs but we have to do it,” Rainio says, referencing the fact that ice scraping against the rock sometimes becomes less stable than ice in other areas.
Recordings and analysis in the lab allowed them to pinpoint the places where the echoes came from on the cliffs. These revealed that the rock art matched with certain echo locations.
“We could prove that the echoes really reflect from those painted areas,” Rainio says.
Read More: Why Did Our Paleolithic Ancestors Paint Cave Art?
What Did the Echoes Mean?
Researchers don’t know what language or spiritual beliefs existed for the neolithic people in Finland, or how they interacted with the echoes. But Rainio speculates that the rock art may have been a ritual practice.
“Our acoustic idea is that people approached those cliffs from the water, because waterways were the highways of the Stone Age,” Rainio says.
Anybody that approached would have experienced the echo of their voices and other noises. This might have reflected a spiritual power in the drawn figures to the neolithic people.
“The echoes are so strong that it must have had some meaning,” Rainio says.
The repetition of the echo may also have represented a connection with the spiritual world of these people as they would have heard their own voices repeated.
A drum motif can be seen at the cliffs at Värikallio, suggesting that drumming may have occurred — the researchers collaborated with artists at one section to recreate a dance scene using some of the postures in the paintings. And supporting the idea that rituals occurred in these areas, archaeologists have discovered bone arrowheads and even pendants submerged in water below some of the art. These may have been left as offerings, Rainio says.
For Rainio, the discovery is special because it brings a new dimension to understanding about how people experienced the rock art at these locations.
Read More: 5 of the World’s Most Fascinating Cave Paintings
Article Sources:
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Joshua Rapp Learn is an award-winning D.C.-based science writer. An expat Albertan, he contributes to a number of science publications like National Geographic, The New York Times, The Guardian, New Scientist, Hakai, and others.
