PERU

Around the World March 1, 2011

Acoustic scientists have resurrected the ancient, booming sound of decorated shell trumpets from Chaví n de Huántar by playing the 2,500-year-old pre-Inca instruments.
SHARE:

PERU: Acoustic scientists have resurrected the ancient, booming sound of decorated shell trumpets from Chaví n de Huántar by playing the 2,500-year-old pre-Inca instruments. They also used computers to simulate the acoustic properties of the site's ceremonial center and found that the sound from a shell trumpet—20 were found at the site—could have created sensory disorientation that might have been used in rituals or to enforce social hierarchy.

  • Features May/June 2026

    Pioneers of Lakefront  Living

    Why Neolithic and Bronze Age farmers in the Alps built their villages on stilts

    Read Article
    Modern replicas of Bronze Age houses in Lake Constance
    © APM/Frank Müller
  • Features May/June 2026

    The Last Maya Kingdom

    On the shores of a lake in Guatemala, the Itzá people defied the Spanish for nearly 200 years

    Read Article
    Flores Island, Guatemala
    Courtesy Timothy Pugh/Itzá Archaeological Project
  • Features May/June 2026

    Art for the Ages

    A surreal style of painting endured for 4,000 years in the canyonlands of West Texas

    Read Article
    Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center Archive
  • Features May/June 2026

    Bridge to the Past

    The Yellow River brought both prosperity and calamity to China’s dazzling medieval capital By Ling Xin

    Read Article
    Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology