Sounding the past – Pioneering research on archaeoacoustics and past musical instruments

What did the Neolithic sound like? For decades, archaeology largely ignored this question. My research on Neolithic shell trumpets from Catalonia changes that, placing sound at the centre of how we understand past societies. By combining archaeology, musicology and acoustics, this study represents the first systematic archaeoacoustic analysis of shell trumpets from this region and one of the most detailed anywhere in Europe.The project focused on twelve Neolithic shell trumpets made from Charonia shells, eight of which can amazingly still produce sound today. Under strict conservation conditions, these instruments were played and acoustically tested, allowing us to measure sound pressure levels, pitch and harmonic potential. The results were striking. Several trumpets reach volumes exceeding 100 decibels, demonstrating that they were among the loudest sound-producing tools available in prehistory. This provides strong evidence that they were primarily used as long-distance signalling devices, capable of coordinating people across settlements, agricultural landscapes and even within underground mining galleries. At the same time, some instruments could produce multiple stable notes, revealing an unexpected expressive and musical potential.This research is novel not only because of its findings, but because of its approach: it treats sound as archaeological data. By literally re-sounding the past, it opens a new window onto Neolithic communication, social organisation and sensory experience.The impact has extended far beyond academia. The study has attracted widespread international media attention, with coverage in the USA, Canada, the UK and Spain, and featured interviews on Catalunya Ràdio. My broader work on archaeoacoustics has also captured public imagination, demonstrating a strong appetite for research that brings the past to life in vivid, audible ways. Sound, it turns out, is a powerful bridge between prehistory and the present.