Acoustic perception and emotion evocation by rock art soundscapes of Altai (Russia)

Abstract

The major goal of psychoarchaeoacoustics is to understand the psychologybehind motivations and emotions of past communities when selecting certainacoustic environments to set activities involving the production of paintings andcarvings. Within this framework, the present study seeks to explore whether agroup of archaeological rock art sites in Altai (Siberia, Russia) are distinguished byparticular acoustic imprints that elicit distinct reactions on listeners, in perceptualand emotional terms. Sixty participants were presented with a series of naturalsounds convolved with six impulse responses from Altai, three of them recordedin locations in front of rock art panels and three of them in front of similarlocations but without any trace of rock art. Participants were interrogated abouttheir subjective perception of the sounds presented, using 10 psychoacoustic andemotional scales. The mixed ANOVA analyses carried out revealed that feelingsof “presence,” “closeness,” and “tension” evoked by all sounds were significantlyinfluenced by the location. These effects were attributed to the differences inreverberation between the locations with and without rock art. Despite resultsare not consistent across all the studied rock art sites, and acknowledgingthe presence of several limitations, this study highlights the significance of itsmethodology. It stresses the crucial aspect of incorporating the limitationsencountered in shaping future research endeavors.