Rock paintings on a cliff rising directly from a lake are in an acoustically distinctive environment. This feature may have played a major role in their significance to prehistoric hunter-gatherers.
Researchers from the University of Helsinki examined the acoustics of some of the sites, where the art typically portrays elks, humans and boats. They performed measurements in front of 37 rock paintings and found that the cliffs reflect sound particularly strongly and accurately.
When prehistoric hunter-gatherers approached the rock painting sites by water, they could hear an “auditory mirror image” that seemed to come from behind the rock walls. “So, people heard the painted elks talking and the human figures responding with a voice that resembled their own”, says archaeologist Riitta Rainio.
