ALICE CLOUGH

"The past fizzes and trembles in the present" - proof of concept soundscape presented at TAG conference, December 2024 

I invite you to close your eyes and take a breath. Listen closely. 

You are hearing post-excavation processing equipment, sounds emitted by the architecture of MOLA’s London processing facility, and the sounds of archaeological finds and materials recorded with specially adapted contact microphones.

You are hearing material changes, vibrations, electromagnetic waves, and echoes. Clumps of soil fracture and dissolve as they are soaked in water. A lump of burnt flint amplifies the vibration of the table it sits on, meanwhile a similar piece from the same context is dulled by the cardboard archive box that contains it. The inside of a postmedieval jug makes a deep, round hum. A pig’s long bone sounds high pitched and airy. Archaeology resonates. It reveals its assemblages through acoustic resonance, narrating pasts and presents in its own fizzing, trembling way.

Sound is powerful because of what Angus Carlyle (2013: 15) describes as the “radical sensorial openness” with which most of us encounter the heard – whether that’s through the ears or more broadly through the body. Within the field of sound studies many would argue that listening is feeling. Whether as sonic perception or as vibration, the experience of sound cannot be switched off in the way that a seeing person might close their eyes. Sound is forceful and evanescent, intense and ephemeral (LaBelle, 2010: xvi).

As an output, then, sound carries great potential for archaeologists to engage people. But as well as this, the seeking of sounds that potentially lie beyond human hearing offers an interesting tool for archaeologists.

How might the acoustic ecology of a feature, a trench, or an archive reveal the complexity of interactions taking place within and between archaeological contexts at any one time? What messy collaborations, tangled networks, or real-time changes might this kind of listening reveal, and what kind of imaginative realms could it unlock?

Could a technique like this be used as a tool to support wonder, for both archaeologists and publics? Could archaeologists – better qualified than most at deciphering meaning from subtlety – bring something unique to the broader field of sound studies and deep listening? And could acoustic ecologies inspire new approaches to archaeological practice, for example in interpretation, the structuring and deposition of archives, engagement or dissemination? 

Carlyle, A. and Lane, C. (2013) On Listening. Uniformbooks, Axminster. 

LaBelle, B. (2010) Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life. Bloomsbury, London.

Oliveros, P. (1999) Quantum Listening: From Practice to Theory (To Practice Practice). SoundArtArchive, Online, available at: https://s3.amazonaws.com/arena-attachments/736945/19af465bc3fcf3c8d5249713cd586b28.pdf