[/img]
It's always fun when scientists discover new stuff about really old
cultures, especially when it has to do with getting weird and rocking
out. Recent research suggests temples built around 600 A.D. in
Palenque, Mexico were designed with projection rooms that shot the
sound of voices and instruments 300 feet away with the help of stucco-
coated surfaces. 1600 years before that, in the Peruvian Andes, a pre-
Incan society in Chavín was constructing a nightmarish Gallery
of Labyrinths to play "strange acoustic tricks" during cult
initiations: animal-like roars from horns, disorienting echoes, and
maybe even choirs designed to produce otherworldly effects. And all of
this while the poor inductees were being fed psychedelic San Pedro
cacti. Yikes! To a certain extent this is all speculation, but we can
tell you that if we were ancient priests with this kind of gear at our
disposal we'd be using it for mind-controlling purposes too. Just
because!
[Photo adapted from Jenny Pansing's flickr]
No comments:
Post a Comment