Music Archaeology

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kristina Nielsen.

Since the 1960s, Mexicayotl communities––or communities focused on Mexican Indigenous revivalism––have pursued an Indigenous cultural recovery. In the United States, these efforts have gained traction among Danza Azteca communities who increasingly employ pre-Hispanic flutes, rattles, and other Mesoamerican instruments in their rituals and performances. Danza Azteca communities have drawn on lines of inquiry that parallel those of Robert Stevenson (1968: 17, 18), including the study of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kong Cheong. Mads Jorgensen.

Duct flutes are an important class of aerophone instrument among the ancient and modern indigenous Americans. Duct flutes can be further classified into tubular and vessel types. While they are widely distributed, vessel flutes, unlike tubular flutes, are rarely depicted in regional iconographies. This is perhaps because they are small in size and generally hidden by the player’s hands and are thus difficult to portray in murals, vases and sculptures. However, this is not the case in West Mexico...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Katrina Kosyk.

This paper explores an alternative method for examining ephemeral aspects of material culture, such as sound, in the production processes of ceramic pre-Columbian aerophone construction. In a case study of a museum collection from the G-752Rj site in Greater Nicoya, I demonstrate that it is possible to identify groups of producers and evidence of knowledge transfer between persons that may reflect communities of practice. This research has the potential for examining regional trade and migration...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jared Katz.

The Maya Music Project is dedicated to documenting ancient Maya musical instruments throughout the Maya area. Over the past year and a half the project has been documenting instruments housed in both archaeological laboratories and museums in Guatemala, Belize, and the United States in order to better understand the types of musical instruments that were played by the ancient Maya. At the time of writing this abstract, the project has worked with over 250 musical instruments, and has made 3D...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Valeria Bellomia.

This presentation focuses on some results of an interdisciplinary study carried out on two scraping idiophones made of human bones from ancient Mesoamerica (omichicahuaztli). Both the instruments are today on exhibit at the Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico "Luigi Pigorini" in Rome. The detailed analysis of the bone surfaces allowed us to reconstruct the taphonomic processes that affected the bones and the steps employed to transform them into musical instruments. Our research team...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Philippe Bezy.

For the ancient Maya, the use of music was often depicted as central to ritual activity.  One of the longest lasting instruments, the shell trumpet, provides ample material for analysis.  My three-pronged interpretive approach is made possible by the shell’s use in ancient ritual contexts, its appearance in Classic era iconography, and its organic origins. Archeologically provenanced trumpets, for example, yield deposition data, while art historical methods address both unprovenanced trumpets...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Francisca Zalaquett.

In this paper we present the advances in the organological, acoustic and contextual analysis of musical instruments excavated by Dr. Linda Manzanilla in the sectors of Teopancazco, Oztoyahualco, Tunnels and Xalla, all of them located in the archaeological site of Teotihuacan. These instruments were part of a complex system of sound communication that often accompanied the rituals and daily activities. We propose some interpretations on the use of certain instruments and their relationship with...