The Archeology of Sound: Malta’s Hal - Saflieni Hypogeum

[burntheships]

Malta's Hal - Saflieni Hypogeum is an enormous subterranean structure
dating to the Saflieni phase (3000-2500 BC) in Maltese prehistory.



The entrance to the Hypogeum is through an unsuspecting doorway
in an unsuspecting street. First discovered by accident in 1902 when
workers cutting cisterns for housing development broke through its roof.
The workers tried to hide the temple at first, but eventually it was reported.









Hypogeum of Hal-Saflieni literally means "underground" in Greek.
Carved from solid rock it contains rock-cut features such as a
'speaking chamber', trilithons, lintelled-doorways, a large cistern
and a 'holy of holies' surrounded by 'embryonic chambers.
With its ceilings intact, the underground structure holds
secrets of a strange play of sound in the stone rooms and halls;
a "forgotten" technology which operates on the human emotional sphere.

Inside, a unique chamber carved out of solid limestone and demonstrating
incredible acoustic properties;  'the Oracle Chamber' or The Oracle Room.

The Oracle Room
A speaking chamber carved with a rounded interior surface;
The result is an echo which reverberates throughout the hypogeum.

"A word spoken in this room is magnified a hundredfold and is audible throughout the entire structure. The effect upon the credulous can be imagined when the oracle spoke and the words came thundering forth through the dark and mysterious place with terrifying impressiveness. "
William Arthur Griffiths

Standing in the Hypogeum is like being inside a giant bell. At certain pitches, one feels the sound vibrating in bone and tissue as much as hearing it in the ear. It's actually quite thrilling.
http://www.otsf.org/Archaeoacoustics.htm#_edn1

The Sound of Prehistory


A mans voice chanting around the 110 Hz frequency turns the entire
temple complex into a bizarre trance-inducing room that seems able to
stimulate the creative center of the human brain.

"This acoustic phenomenon, together with the hypogeum's mysterious nature and its suggestive ambience, resulted in the site becoming associated with a number of fantastic stories, urban myths and legends," says Katya Stroud of Heritage Malta.  "Amongst these are stories of serpent priests, genetic mutation, humanoid beings, and screams of children lost in caves underneath the site. Despite their dubious origins and unfounded nature, these stories are still making appearances in local and foreign media.  It is now up to science to help us zoom back onto the real questions about the nature of the ?al Saflieni Hypogeum, particularly its acoustic design and effects."

... If one theory tests out as we suspect it might, then our Stone Age ancestors have left us a gift that has incredible relevance in the modern world: one that, for all our techno-savvy smartness, we would probably never have thought of again."

It is no mystery as to the answer of did ancient people use sound;
The question remains as to How and Why?

in 2008 of an experiment in which regional brain activity in a number of healthy volunteers was monitored by EEG through exposure to different resonance frequencies. Their findings indicated that at 110 Hz the patterns of activity over the prefrontal cortex abruptly shifted, resulting in a relative deactivation of the language center and a temporary shifting from left to right-sided dominance related to emotional processing. This shifting did not occur at 90 Hz or 130 Hz.
Ancient Origins

Now, an international team of scientists is about to unlock the ancient mystery
of The Oracle Chamber in Malta's Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni; believed to be the
oldest prehistoric underground temple in the world.

"Important Discoveries May Be Made"

Discovery Begins
Conference MALTA
ARCHAEOACOUSTICS
The Archaeology of Sound

A multi-disciplinary project has been outlined to undertake a challenging and unprecedented experiment.  Once underway, on site in the Hypogeum, they will collect biofeedback data including EEG from living subjects exposed to naturally produced sound in the frequency of 110 Hz, emanating from the Oracle Chamber.

http://www.otsf.org/conference.htm

Reading and Source Material
http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/march-2012/article/ancient-builders-created-monumental-structures-that-altered-sound-and-mind-say-researchers
http://www.otsf.org/Archaeoacoustics.htm#_edn1
http://www.davidpublishing.org/show.html?15242
http://www.ancientmed.org/
http://www.sbresearchgroup.eu/index.php/en/research-papers/199-archaeoacoustics-analysis-and-ceremonial-customs-in-an-ancient-hypogeum

New research into the ancient knowledge of sound,
vibration and its effect on our well being, as well as its known abilities to
affect our emotional states, and much more.

Updates to come during the conference if news is released.

[Somamech]

Wow my only trip to this plataue and I find this!

I am pretty sure that this Hot Spring Spa Bath also hold's the same properties as other ancient sturcture's

http://www.peninsulahotsprings.com/bathing/bath-house-bathing/turkish-steam-bath-hamam

Only item of interest is that the above link is not ancient... which is cool as it means the effect is able to be reproduced ! 

[burntheships]

Only item of interest is that the above link is not ancient... which is cool as it means the effect is able to be reproduced ! 

Check this out, note the hot springs there as well!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidaurus

[Flux]

Interesting reading. I sure PWM knows of this 110 Hz frequency?

[burntheships]

Interesting reading. I sure PWM knows of this 110 Hz frequency?

I dont know, maybe he will take a peek?

[rose]

wowsa, BTS, that 110 frequency is new to me. I think the highest naturally occurring brainwave frequency discovered so far is  Gamma, at 27-100 hz. That seems to me to a wide range, considering that Alpha, Beta, Delta and Theta share the 1-26 hz bands.  Naturally occurring gamma is suppose to be about 40 hz.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_wave

The hypogeum story is interesting. I thought maybe the Al- prefix, meant 'son of' and dated to the 250 years of Arab control, so I went searching for a connection.

[quoteBook Summary of Hypogeum Of A|al-Saflieni]The Hypogeum of Paola, Malta, literally meaning "underground" in Greek, is a subterranean structure dating to the Saflieni phase in Maltese prehistory. Thought to be originally a sanctuary, it became a necropolis in prehistoric times. It is the only prehistoric underground temple in the world. [/quote]

http://www.bookadda.com/books/hypogeum-al-saflieni-lambert-m-6132093966-9786132093967

It must be a contraction of Ajal, then, as nearly as I can tell, seems to mean "term" in Arabic. Thus the Greek/Arabic would likely translate as 'term underground'.

Esoterically speaking, maybe time in the chamber was thought to provide a shortcut through the "Dark Night of the Soul," when we are tested to the max, or maybe it was to be the metaphorical 'death'  all shaman must experience. I don't know how the 110-hz frequency is relevant to  the chamber. But, if it is, then (as I imagine its story) , the bodies of those who exhibited a 'failure to thrive under adverse conditions" were never removed and thus, over time, the place transmogrified from a sanctuary to a necropolis.

rose

[burntheships]

I don't know how the 110-hz frequency is relevant to  the chamber. 

The acoustic properties within the Hypogeum have already
been studied extensively; Maltese composer Ruben Zahra
and a research team from Italy found that that sound
resonates at 110 Hz speaking from within the Oracle chamber.

Similar characteristics have also been found in other ancient
chambers such as Newgrange in Ireland.

It is in this range that influences a change in the
state of the human in the temple....
that certain frequencies have standing waves that
emphasize each other and other waves that de-emphasize
each other is nothing new; the idea that it was used
thousands of years ago to create a certain trance
like state is what they are after.

"forgotten technology"

Ireland: Newgrange
Newgrange: Primary Resonance 110 Hz

Previous archaeoacoustic investigations by Robert Jahn have examined the acoustic properties of a sample of chambered prehistoric (primarily Neolithic) megalithic structures in England and Ireland, including the major passage of Newgrange, Ireland (constructed c.3200 BC). These structures were found to exhibit a common acoustic property: all were characterized by primary resonance frequencies in the 95–120 Hz range, with most at 110–112 Hz.

Notably, the central chamber of Newgrange, the largest and most architecturally sophisticated of the sites tested in that work, displayed a primary resonance frequency of 110 Hz. In some cases, fairly massive stones had been placed at particular locations within the chambers apparently to adjust their physical properties and yield these resonant properties. One suggestion has been that cavity resonance may have been designed to support human ritual chanting, because the resonance frequency lies within the human vocal range.
thearrowsoftruth.com...

http://thearrowsoftruth.com/archeoacoustics-the-sound-of-ancient-megalithic-structures/

As to the 7000 skeletons, they were found to have been placed
there without flesh; or much flesh....so they were
already deceased.

http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/pdfs/1995-acoustical-resonances-ancient-structures.pdf

[sky otter]

an older thread on  sound
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=4713.0

but try some of these
http://tomkenyon.com/store/

they all have a short track  for you to listen ..click on the pic
here's one
http://tomkenyon.com/store/sound-transformations/

don't do too many at one time

[burntheships]

don't do too many at one time

Hey sky,

Thanks for the links, will check it out,
and follow your advice.

Sounds can be used in so many different
ways, the researchers refer to this as a
"forgotten technology".

Much of what is actually known about
the abilities of sound/s to be used
as a weapon is classified.

I think the music industry is
one area which is all too little
investigated.