Name: Dźwięki prehistorii i średniowiecza - wykłady gościnne
Start: 2026-03-11T15:15:00+01:00
Location: Gołębia 11 Str., 31 - 007 Kraków, Poland

$D\u017awi\u0119ki prehistorii i \u015bredniowiecza - wyk\u0142ady go\u015bcinne$

W imieniu Dyrekcji naszego Instytutu mamy przyjemność zaprosić na gościnne wykłady dwóch ekspertek w dziedzinie archeoakustyki, które odbędą się w środę 11 marca o godz. 15:15 w s. 210.
1. Prof. Margarita Díaz-Andreu (Uniwersytet w Barcelonie), "Artsoundscapes: Listening to the Sound of Prehistory"
2. Dr Zorana Đorđević, "How Did Medieval Europe Communicate over Vast Distances? Exploring Acoustic Networks among Sacred Sites"
Abstrakty:
"Artsoundscapes: Listening to the Sound of Prehistory"
How can a multidisciplinary, global project study the sounds of prehistory? The recently finished Artsoundscapes project was funded as a European Research Council Advanced Grant. It investigated the role of sound in shaping social, ritual and spiritual experiences in prehistoric societies. Addressing a long-standing gap in archaeology, the project integrated archaeoacoustics, psychoacoustics, neuropsychology, ethnography, and field archaeology to examine whether acoustic properties influenced the selection, creation, and use of rock art sites and sacred landscapes.
In this talk the fieldwork conducted across diverse regions will be presented, including the rock art landscapes of Levantine rock art of eastern Spain, Southern Africa, Siberia, and Baja California, some of them awarded World Heritage status. Standardized acoustic measurements—such as impulse response and reverberation analysis—were combined with laboratory-based perceptual experiments to assess how sound environments affect emotional and cognitive states.
The project produced many publications, fostered international interdisciplinary collaboration, and developed innovative public engagement tools, including a multisensory interactive map. Artsoundscapes demonstrates that prehistoric landscapes were not only visual and material constructs but also carefully experienced acoustic environments integral to ritual practice and social meaning.
"How Did Medieval Europe Communicate over Vast Distances? Exploring Acoustic Networks among Sacred Sites"
This talk presents the results of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral project CULT-AURAL, which investigates the role of large percussion instruments in long-distance communication across medieval Christian landscapes. Focusing on bells, matraques, and semantra, the project examines how acoustic signals structured auditory networks connecting settlements, monasteries, and ritual sites. The talk presents three case studies: the acoustic and tonal analysis of medieval bells from Norway; the reconstruction of bell-based auditory networks in Catalonia; and the archaeoacoustic study of two Catalan matraques. Combining in situ acoustic measurements, spectral and tonal analysis, spatial modeling, and historical sources, the project demonstrates how instrument design, landscape morphology, and architectural context shaped the propagation and audibility of acoustic signals. These case studies also highlight methodological challenges and offer new approaches for studying the sound of large percussion instruments as a form of immediate communication in the medieval past.