Around a century or so before the Inca Empire came to power, in A.D.1400, thunderous blasts may have rumbled from a high ridge in the Andes Mountains.
Evidence suggests that the people of around 700 years ago worshipped a thunder deity by pounding rhythmically on an amplified dance floor.
Archaeologist Kevin Lane of University of Buenos Aires says that excavations at a high altitude site called Viejo Sangayaico in Peru have revealed the way members of a local farming and herding tribe, the Chocorvos built this reverberating floor. The floor was made of different layers of soil, ash, and guano that created a floor which absorbed shocks but also produced resonant noises when people stepped on it. This surface is used for ceremonial purposes. worked like a large drumLane, in the September issue of the magazine, reports that groups as large as 25 people may have been able to play with their feet. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.
These findings from a ridgetop rite area, which faces a nearby peak, offer a rare glimpse into Sound and dance played a major role in ancient societies (SN: 11/18/10).
While working at Viejo Sangayaico in 2014, Lane’s team first noticed that one of two open-air platforms located in a ritual area sounded hollow when people walked on it.
An excavation of a portion of the platform later revealed six sediments consisting of different mixes of clay silt, ash, and other materials. Ashy layers within a section of guano from animals such as llamas and alpacas included small cavities that helped to generate drumlike sounds from the platform’s surface, Lane says.
His team measured the noise created by stomping the platform one-by-one and in groups between two and four. The platform was also tested while four people danced stomp-dance across it.
Lane says that the noises produced were between 60 and 80 decibels. That’s roughly equal to a restaurant with a lot of noise or a loud discussion. The noise would have been much louder if the dancers had been in larger groups, perhaps accompanied by music and singing.
Spanish historical documents mention the Chocorvos belief in thunder, lightning and earthquake deities. Supernatural convictions may have inspired ancient ceremonies at Viejo Sangayaico that included stomp dancing aimed at emulating a thunder god’s signature blasts, Lane suggests. Lane suggests that the remains of an ancient temple near the percussive platforms included pottery pieces with snake images, which in the Quechua language refer to rivers, water, and in some cases, lightning.
Lane suspects that pre-Inca stomp dances may have also influenced the Chorcovos’ and other Andean group’s dances practiced in the mid-1500s after the Spanish conquest of Incas (1532). The Chorcovos were subjects of the Inca Empire throughout its existence. As part a resistance against Spanish culture known Taki OnqoyAndeans trembled and danced in circles to possibly invoke spirits of their deities.
Finding another percussive platform along with artifacts related to water and lightning rituals at other ancient Andean sites would better support Lane’s argument that sound-amplifying platforms provided a way to honor a thunder god as part of broader ceremonial events, says anthropological archaeologist Kylie Quave. Quave, an anthropological archaeologist at George Washington University, Washington, D.C., says that, to this end, researchers will now be able to excavate other platforms in order for them check for guano layer and other elements related drum-like dance floors.
Whether makers of the Viejo Sangayaico platform designed it to amplify sounds, Chocorvos people could have discovered the surface’s drumlike properties and then used it for ceremonial dancing, says Miriam Kolar, an archaeoacoustics researcher at Stanford University.
Kolar reports that other Andean sites, older than Viejo Sangayaico have also shown evidence of sound-altering structures. Conch-shell conch horns were found at a ceremonial centre in a roughly 3,000-year-old site called Chavin de HuántarKolar and his colleagues found that the sounds could have ranged from almost pure tones up to loud roars. These were especially emphasized in passages of importance and ventilation shafts.
Those who live in the vicinity of Viejo Sangayaico claim that an ancient site nearby contains a platform similar to this one that vibrates underfoot. Lane and his colleagues have not yet visited that site.
Finding more sound-amplifying platforms will depend on “having your ear attuned to how different parts of a site sound,” Lane says, “which is something that archaeologists rarely do.”
