![]() In canyons, as well, Waller has found the correlation between spots with lots of echoes and spots where prehistoric art is found. "They say, 'They leave their bloody handprints when they close the door behind them,'" Waller said of the Memegwashio myths. In the Canadian Shield, a rock layer formed some 500 million years ago, myths tell of rock-dwelling spirits called Memegwashio that are responsible for both echoes and rock art. ![]() The same is true in North America, Waller said, where reverb-rich locations are frequently decorated with illustrations of thunderbirds, a legendary creature whose wings were thought to cause the sound of thunder. His measurements bear this out: He has found that cave areas with a higher level of reverberation are more likely to be decorated with art. Thus, Waller argues, it's no coincidence these animals are painted in caves where the echoes reverberate so much that a few sounds quickly escalate into a thunderous roar. In Eurasia, these animals are also associated with thunder gods, because the sound of hundreds of hoofs was thunderous. European cave art is dominated by pictures of herds of bison, stags and other large mammals, Waller said. Myth and sound collide at other sites, as well. It's that mythology that leads Waller to believe that Stonehenge may have been built to mimic an acoustical illusion. Stone circles like Stonehenge are also known as "piper's stones," Waller pointed out, and they are the center of a myth about magical pipers playing for a circle of dancing maidens, all of whom turned to stone at the sound of the music. The interference of sound waves creates spots in the field where the noise cancels out. The stones in Stonehenge create acoustical dead spots, Waller found, very similar to acoustical dead spots created when two pipers stand in a field and play a note simultaneously. In 2012, he reported a startling acoustical discovery about Stonehenge, the famed stone circle in Wiltshire, England. ![]() ![]() Waller's work spans the globe, from paleo-art in North America to stone circles in the United Kingdom. ![]()
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