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Edgerton admits he would find the theory more convincing if there were more than one instance of such an effect in Mayan architecture. No problem, says Lubman, pointing to similar phenomena reported at the Mayan pyramid at Tikal in Guatemala, and at the Pyramid of the Magicians in Uxmals, Mexico. In fact, one could expect to hear such echoes from any Mayan temple with a stone staircase facing an open plaza. "It's much easier to find reports of these echoes than it is to get archaeologists to investigate them," he says.

Nor are the unusual acoustical effects at Mayan sites limited to tonal echoes. Guides in Tulum on the Yucatan coast will report that the temple there emits a clear, long-range whistle when the wind direction and velocity are just right -- a possible signal to warn of developing storms. Then there are Chichen Itza's "musical phalluses": a set of artillery-shell-shaped stones that produce clear, nearly melodic tones when tapped with a wooden mallet.

"Echo chambers" similar to the Great Ball Court can be found in many European domed cathedrals -- most notably St. Paul's in London and St. Peter's in Rome -- and the large theater near Syracuse in Sicily, known as the "Ear of Dionysus." In each case, the amplification is created by sound waves echoing off the curved surfaces of the dome. But the Great Ball Court has no vaulted ceiling to provide the requisite curved surface for the reflections, and although theories abound, the source of its amplification is still not fully understood. The famed conductor Leopold Stowkowski of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra spent four days at the site in 1931, determined to uncover the ingenious design principles behind the effect, hoping to adapt them to an open-air concert theater he was designing. He left empty-handed.

Questions of intent aside, Edgerton recognizes the benefits archaeology could gain from acoustical expertise. Still, he urges a cautious collaboration. "Let us reconstruct from what we know, rather than conjecturing about birds."

The rest of the archaeological community seems to be slowly coming around: Lubman recently presented his first paper at an archaeology meeting, the first non-archaeologist to do so, albeit with traditional "crackpot" placement: dead last in a contributed session. But the response was cautiously positive and he's been asked to contribute an article to a prominent Mayan journal on the topic. Acousticians are responding in kind. Next month's meeting of the Acoustical Society of America will feature an entire session devoted to the work of acoustical archaeologists.

To Lubman, the fledgling field of acoustical archaeology can only augment traditional archaeology's long list of accomplishments in rediscovering our human past. And he remains convinced of his theory about Chichen Itza's chirped echo. "It's ironic that an entity as ephemeral as sound can persist longer than the creators of the space," he says. "Where else in the world have an ancient people preserved a sacred sound by coding it into stone, so that a thousand years later, people might hear it and wonder?"
salon.com | Sept. 15, 1999

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