Sound of pre-Incan Conches Analyzed at Stanford

At Chavín de Huántar, in Peru, the ancestors of the Inca people were using sawed-off conches shells more than 3,000 years ago, in the underground corridors of their temple. No one really know why these objects were used ceremonially, but a team of researchers at Stanford is seeking to clear this mystery.

What is weird about people blowing through heavy shells of ancient marine creatures is not that it happened in a single temple in South America, but that the habit is spread around the entire globe.

Tibetan monks use these conches calls even today, when they are summoning devotees to their temples. In Buddhist tradition, the instrument was used to proclaim the dharma, whereas the Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata shows how warriors blew in these shells ahead of battle.

There is indeed a unique sound to the conches, one that is very likely to have captivated the people of the ancient world. How the habit spread all over the world is still a mystery though, and one that is bound to endure for many years to come.

In their bid to make sense of it all, researchers at the Stanford University put together a team comprised of archaeologists and acoustics experts, anthropologists and electrical engineers, and also computer scientists. The collaboration is indeed unique.

The experts are operating at the archaeological site with the cooperation of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture. The work is conducted in the fields of psychoacoustics and archaeo-acoustics.

“Conches are attention-grabbers. They're rarely used trivially. People don't play them for entertainment,” explains Stanford associate professor of anthropology John Rick, who is a member of the research team.

“They're ceremonial – shiny, noisy, highly labor-intensive things. This is something that literally has an effect on the human being, even physiologically,” he goes on to say.

What is interesting to note here is that Chavín de Huántar is a very weird place. There are numerous underground corridors at the location, a whole bunch of hidden alcoves, as well as numerous ventilation shafts.

This may have given the impression that sounds are coming from all directions. Couple that with the fact that the priests were consuming psycho-active drugs, and with early evidence of light manipulation, and you get a complex ritual. Researchers now need to find out what it was for.

“Archeology, anthropology, electrical engineering, signal processing, acoustics, mechanical engineering, physics, music, art – it all comes together,” explains Stanford consulting professor Jonathan Abel, from the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).

“It's completely fascinating. I'm learning a little bit about culture, and a lot about acoustics, actually,” he concludes.