Status: Hoax
The Raw Feed has linked to a video (in French) in which Belgian archaeologists discuss how they were able to
"use computer scans of the grooves in 6,500-year-old pottery to extract sounds -- including talking and laughter -- made by the vibrations of the tools used to make the pottery." The
video is fairly good quality and would lead you to believe that it might be real, if it weren't for the premise being pretty farfetched (and not reported anywhere else in the news).
Make Magazine reports that the video was created last year as an April Fool's Day hoax, and point out that "This
site - 'Poisson d'avril de journal televise', translates to: 'April fools newscast'." (However, I can't find any mention of Poisson d'avril in the site they link to.) Other Make readers point out that the premise (audio extracted from ancient pottery) was ripped off (pun intentional) from a story by Gregory Benford,
Time Shards. (Thanks to Schmawy for the link)
Comments
It reminds me of the "you can hear radio programs on your tooth fillings" theory, and the "you can see the last image someone saw preserved on the dead person's retina" theory.
Personally I've never heard *this* "Belgian" version, but I remember the story being on our news several years ago. But hey, on April Fool's Day, any story can be on the news over here...
Is it feasible to cut accurate, 200hz-ish waveforms in setting pottery? Is it feasible to cut an accurate spiral groove in pottery that can hold audio frequencies? With old-fashioned technology? At three o'clock in the morning? With my reputation? Bingo!
I am also reminded of the glass armonica, a musical instrument that consists of tuned bowls rotating around an axle that you play by putting your finger on the edge of them.
It would be possible with modern technology to make a bowl or piece of pottery that has an audio groove in it, perhaps playing a drum loop endlessly as it spins around; you could spin several on poles and mix between them. Such a thing would make a nice novelty gift.
But has anyone played back sounds from pottery I don't think so. However, a new technique is being used to recover old vinyl recording using lasers to amplify the grooves left in the records.
It reminds me of the "you can hear radio programs on your tooth fillings" theory
End quote:
Comment
This part is actually true for people with metal fillings in their mouth, who live near high power AM radio stations. By the magic of Amplitude Modulation, (AM Radio) the sounds brodcast can resonate in people's teeth. Check out this story involving Lucille Ball of all people
http://snopes.com/radiotv/tv/fillings.htm
and of course, somebody is working on making this into a commercial product:
http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2002/11/24/radio_teeth_mo.html
The medium would be far too porous to produce such a noise to decibel level.
The mechanics to uniformly sweep a scribe across non-uniform geometry would be a bit complex just to smooth the surface of a pot! Especially if the maker wished to make anything other than the same darn pot shape over and over! 😊
I also considered that the scribe, as illustrated in the images, doesn't provide a "resonator" of any sort. Some sort of material acting similar to the sound-boards of some acoustic musical instruments, operating in reverse, would be needed to amplify ambient audio into lateral motion at the tip of the scribe.
Hooray! I love geek stuff! I caught this one- It didn't catch me! hehehe...
http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/17/17-586.html
wow.. really great post.
thanks a lot.