Listening For Ancient Gods: Archaeoacoustics: A study of the world's oldest buildings and the archaeology of sound, with new implications for how we came to be who we are.

by Linda C. Eneix

Updated and expanded material will be published in late 2023 under a new "Megaliths, Music and the Mind", including select conference papers and a personal account from one of the fathers of New Age music. Non-Fiction. What drove the building of the first megalithic monuments? Here is new perspective for anyone with an interest in prehistory and human development in its most pivotal days. From Gobekli Tepe in Anatolia to the megalithic temples of Malta to the passage tombs of Ireland, the world’s oldest buildings and the newest scientific research combine for a look at the Stone Age Neolithic Revolution that goes where no one has gone before. With original photos and illustrations, includes data from the worlds of Archaeology, Architecture, Anthropology, Genetics, Physics, Physiology. Fascinating pieces of evidence are set side by side, resulting in a stunning premise.

126 pages, Paperback

Published July 5, 2016

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Shouldn't one be an archaeologist to write a book like this? Probably, but nobody has." Points for honesty on page 1. Eneix, who's no scholar, organized a 2014 conference in Malta on archaeoacoustics -- the notion that ancient megaliths and other structures were designed to amplify, channel and alter sounds, perhaps helping produce altered states of consciousness among those assembled there. An interesting idea for anyone who's read archaeologist David Lewis-Williams' theories about shamanism, rock art, cave paintings and the origin of religion.

The conference drew archaeologists, acoustic engineers, "sound healers" and god knows what other specialists, enthusiasts and cranks. The official proceedings, which look a little daunting, are available elsewhere; this is Eneix's enthusiastic attempt to sum it up, a short (120-page) hash of speculation, science (half-digested and otherwise) and flights of authorial imagination, concentrating on Maltese sites and the well-known Gobekli Tepe shrine in Turkey. It would help no end if a mainstream scholar took up the topic.

[Kathy Luber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! It is what I've been searching for, for so many years. As a sound healing practitioner and musician, it resonates with me on so many levels. Brava!