Rock Music: An Auditory Assessment of Knapping

ABSTRACT

We explore and describe the auditory landscape that emerges from stone tool making. Using two trained musicians, we identify the pitches and octaves produced from percussion knapping. We also analyze whether knapping sounds vary by raw material, knapper skill level, or by flake size. Our results show that our chosen stone material types each displayed a single fundamental pitch (E or G) with one or two additional octaves present, and each individual nodule maintained the same pitch throughout reduction. Knappers of different skills produced no differences in pitch, but there were significant differences in octaves present. Different raw materials showed significant differences in both pitch and octaves present. Flake size did not seem to influence either pitch or octaves present. The acoustic landscape resulting from knapping was certainly even more diverse than what we documented here, and likely influenced hominin stone tool production and learning, cognition, language, and music.

KEYWORDS:

• Stone tools
• music
• language
• sound
• knapping
• experimental archaeology

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by a Kent State University College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Student Senate Grant award to H.N.S.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article [and/or] its supplementary materials.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a Kent State University College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Student Senate Grant award to H.N.S.

Notes on contributors

Heather N. Smith

Heather N. Smith, M.A., is a Ph.D. student in biomedical sciences with the department of Anthropology at Kent State University and the department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Northeast Ohio Medical University. She received her M.A. in Anthropology from Kent State University.

Alyssa Perrone

Alyssa Perrone, M.A., is a Ph.D. student at Texas State University studying Clovis technological organization, comparing endscraper manufacture in the Plains and Southwest to the Great Lakes. She received her M.A. in Anthropology from Kent State University.

Michael Wilson

Michael Wilson, M.A., is a professional archaeologist with ASC Group, Inc. He received his M.A. in Anthropology from Kent State University.

Mary Ann Raghanti

Mary Ann Raghanti, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Kent State University.

C. Owen Lovejoy

C. Owen Lovejoy, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Human Evolutionary Studies in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Department of Anthropology at Kent State University.

Merri J. Rosen

Merri J. Rosen, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Director of the Hearing Research Group at Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED). She studies the effects of developmental stress and hearing loss on auditory perception and neural circuits.

Sharad J. Shanbhag

Sharad J. Shanbhag, Ph.D., is an Associate Research Professor of Neurobiology at Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED). He studies the role of the amygdala in processing vocal communication signals.

David S. DeForrest

David S. DeForest, M.A., has research interests in experimental archaeology and North American open-pit quarries.

R. Lee Lyman

R. Lee Lyman, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA, and has research interests in paleozoology and the history of archaeology.

Metin I. Eren

Metin I. Eren, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Kent State University and a Research Associate in Archaeology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. He co-directs the Kent State University Experimental Archaeology Laboratory.