The Singing Cavemen
….and the award for the stupidest science story I’ve seen in months goes to LiveScience.com for “Cave Men Loved to Sing“, in which we’re told that our cave-dwelling ancestors used echo-location:
With only dull light available from a torch, which couldn’t be carried into very narrow passages, the ancient hunters had to use their voices like sonar to explore the crooks and crannies of a newfound cave, Reznikoff explained.
“When acting in a cave in conditions similar to prehistoric ones … the surroundings a few meters ahead are almost completely dark,” he said, adding that “since sound reaches much farther than reduced light, especially in irregular surroundings, the only possibility and security is to explore the cave with the voice and its echoing effects.”
This work is good, because… “(some work was done in past years and combined with the latest findings)”. A scientific paper being based off previous findings… Fancy that.
The conclusions? -
Because Paleolithic humans had a deep connection with the melodic properties that helped them navigate in a cave, they likely celebrated the unique acoustics by singing in conjunction with their painting sessions.
Posted on 
July 4th, 2008 by 
Simon Greenhill
3 Responses to “The Singing Cavemen”
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Email Henry Updates to Me
July 4th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
And then there’s this argument to end all arguments: “”Why would the Paleolithic tribes choose preferably resonant locations for painting,” he said, “if it were not for making sounds and singing in some kind of ritual celebrations related with the pictures?”
Could there be any other explanation for the location of the paintings…????!!, - according to LiveScience, apparantly not. There’s the odd chance this may be “amazing, real world breakthroughs”, but most probably it’s just bad Science.
July 5th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Thanks for the comment, Sciphu. I agree - I hope the real research hasn’t just relied on this argument. There are plenty of other possible explanations why they chose those spots: chance being the big one. One that occurs to me is that the more resonant locations might be the bigger caves… where you can stick lots of cave paintings.
–Simon
July 9th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Actually, not so silly. But perhaps their explanation for their findings was, ie imagining people clambering around caves like wingless bats, echo-locating.
These two papers have just come out, suggesting there IS something in the reverberations and pitches produced at certain points in stone structures (natural or contrived):
Tse’Biinaholts’a Yalti (Curved Rock That Speaks)
http://tinyurl.com/5axdeo
Ancient Architectural Acoustic Resonance Patterns and Regional Brain Activity
http://tinyurl.com/327p4e
Both come from a new journal whose first issue is free.
The second paper is more ’scientific’ in that it actually shows evidence of brain changes at a certain pitch.
I wonder what the pitch is for Gregorian chants? They were certainly devised to introduce brain changes.