I hope you all find this as interesting as I do! We are all familiar with the class of artifacts known as pestles, in particular roller pestles. We are less familiar with lithophones, which are stone musical instruments, used by many cultures the world over. I will include a video of such instruments from Vietnam, at the bottom of this thread.
Until very recently, lithophones were not known, or rather, not recognized, among our prehistoric Native American cultures. At least that I am aware of. Recently, a friend of mine from Martha's Vineyard, archaeologist Duncan Caldwell, identified several roller pestles from New England as instead being lithophones.
Here is Duncan's webpage, in case you would like to see some of the fascinating research he has been involved in around the world:
In 2013, Duncan published a study, identifying certain New England pestles as instead being possible lithophones. Please note that his article describes how one can determine which is which via a physical examination. I was able to view Duncan's study here, and I hope you can as well:
Recently, archaeologist Marilyn Martoran, of Colorado, was directly inspired by Duncan Caldwell's earlier research to identify what she believed were lithophones in Colorado. You can read, or listen to, an interview of herself and Caldwell at this link:
https://www.npr.org/2018/09/16/64718...al-instruments
And you can hear some of the tones produced by the proposed Colorado lithophones at this link:
https://www.cpr.org/news/story/are-t...you-believe-it
Until very recently, lithophones were not known, or rather, not recognized, among our prehistoric Native American cultures. At least that I am aware of. Recently, a friend of mine from Martha's Vineyard, archaeologist Duncan Caldwell, identified several roller pestles from New England as instead being lithophones.
Here is Duncan's webpage, in case you would like to see some of the fascinating research he has been involved in around the world:
In 2013, Duncan published a study, identifying certain New England pestles as instead being possible lithophones. Please note that his article describes how one can determine which is which via a physical examination. I was able to view Duncan's study here, and I hope you can as well:
Recently, archaeologist Marilyn Martoran, of Colorado, was directly inspired by Duncan Caldwell's earlier research to identify what she believed were lithophones in Colorado. You can read, or listen to, an interview of herself and Caldwell at this link:
https://www.npr.org/2018/09/16/64718...al-instruments
And you can hear some of the tones produced by the proposed Colorado lithophones at this link:
https://www.cpr.org/news/story/are-t...you-believe-it
Comment