HELSINKI – Researchers at the University of Helsinki have reconstructed a soundscape from the Stone Age through experimental archeology.
The experiment involved elk-teeth sown onto garments, called “rattlers” for the sounds they make when the wearer moves. “Wearing such rattlers while dancing makes it easier to immerse yourself in the soundscape, eventually letting the sound and rhythm take control of your movements,” said Riitta Rainio, an auditory archeologist at the University. “It is as if the dancer is led in the dance by someone.”
A Eurasian elk found near Telemark, Norway [Badzil, Wikimedia Commons, CC 3.0]
Rainio and the artist Juha Valkeapää created an apron strung with elk-tooth rattlers patterned after ancient examples recovered from ancient sites in Finland and surrounding areas, such as those found in the Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov gravesite in northwestern Russia. Those rattlers had distinctive microscopic wear patterns on them, which has been documented by Evgeny Girya, an archeologist with the Russian Academy of Sciences. The wear patterns had not been seen in previous studies, but Rainio theorized they were the result of the teeth moving against each other while being worn on the body, especially in the movement caused by dancing.
Items similar to these rattlers have been found in many cultures, to the point of being nearly universal according to Rainio’s study. The study specifically mentions similarities between the Mesolithic artifacts and garments used by Indigenous peoples in the Pacific Northwest and Canada, as well as the Sámi in Fennoscandinavia.
To test the hypothesis, Rainio wore the garment and danced for six consecutive hours as a means of testing what sort of wear the teeth would face under those circumstances. According to the statement Rainio released to Phys.org, the teeth were analyzed before the dancing and afterward to see how they compared to the Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov rattlers.
Girya’s analysis shows the wear on the teeth used in Rainio’s experimental garment was consistent with the patterns seen on the ancient finds, except that the Stone Age teeth had more extensive wear. But that’s not surprising: “As the Stone Age teeth were worn for years or even decades, it’s no surprise that their marks are so distinctive,” says Girya.
The findings also analyzed the particular sounds the teeth make, which can be clear, bright, or loud, depending on the quality of the teeth and the vigor of the movement. One of the fascinating aspects the researchers describe is how the rhythmic quality of the pendants affected their mental states. “During our experimental ‘Disco,’ it indeed felt as if the tooth pendants were dictating the movements, pulse, and tempo as independent agents, instead of the dancer, who became a subservient follower of the rhythm,” the study notes, a state it compares to trance and other altered states of mind.
The teeth used in the experimental garment were compared to teeth found in four of the 177 graves located on the island. More than half of the island’s graves contain elk-tooth artifacts, some of them containing more than 300 teeth. The island’s graves also contained teeth from beavers, bears, dogs, boars, and reindeer, though these are considerably more rare than the elk teeth.
While some publications have covered these findings in predictably flippant ways – The New York Post describes the findings as proof of “hourslong Stone Age raves” – this research matters because it’s one way of learning more about the soundscapes of the past. The impact of the sonic world on the human experience can’t be overstated, but the recorded sound has been around for less than 150 years. Unlike the visual and tactile arts, the sound leaves no trace of itself, except for a few artifacts like those found in Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov. But researchers in the field of auditory archeology have been bringing a greater emphasis to this aspect of the past in recent years.
“…[T]hrough greater attentiveness to contemporary sound,” writes Steve Mills in his 2014 book Auditory Archeology: Understanding Sound and Hearing in the Past, “scholars may become better informed on the many different ways in which sound and hearing pervade places, architectural spaces, social interactions, material engagements and human-animal relationships that may be relevant for thinking about the past.”
For modern Pagans, especially those whose traditions involve reconstructing paganisms of the past, this sonic dimension is vital. While the architecture, art, and material culture of the past has a pervasive influence on the development of contemporary Paganism, the sonic world remains mysterious. We usually have no way to reliably recreate the auditory elements of ancient religion, especially from as distant a period as the Mesolithic era.
“Elk tooth rattlers are fascinating,” says Kristiina Mannermaa, a co-author of the study, “since they transport modern people to a soundscape that is thousands of years old and to its emotional rhythms that guide the body.
“You can close your eyes, listen to the sound of the rattlers and drift on the soundwaves to a lakeside campfire in the world of Stone Age hunter-gatherers.”
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