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FEATURED ARTICLE Acoustics in Music Archaeology: Re-Sounding the Marsoulas Conch and Its Cave Miriam A. Kolar, Carole Fritz, and Gilles Tosello What can be learned from the sounding of a conch shell after it has been silent for 18,000 years? During the last ice age in what is now southern France, a person or people from the Magdalenian period (see bit.ly/3uCjlMc) pro- cured a giant conch (Charonia lampas) (Figure 1) from the Atlantic Ocean and transported it more than 240 km (150 miles) to a narrow cave in the Pyrenean foothills (Haute- Garonne, France). This elaborately decorated limestone cave, known as Marsoulas (Figure 2), extends from its small opening like a long narrow corridor with a triangular cross section, proportions distinct from the voluminous caves typically known for Upper Paleolithic art. The large seashell, which functions as a natural horn, bears evidence of several modifications by humans (Fritz et al., 2021). Other finds in the cave include hematite rocks and tools that may have been used to produce the red pigment adorning both the cave and the interior of the seashell. This is a rare archaeological assemblage of materials that directly link expressive visual culture with human soundmaking in the Upper Paleolithic. Music Archaeology’s Premise: Instruments, People, and Places Make Context Music archaeology grapples with the challenge of recovering clues about purposeful soundmaking by humans in contexts distinct from those today. Thou- sands of years before written language, although at the same time as graphical artworks such as wall paint- ings, engravings, and sculptures, humans made music as evinced by the discovery of 35,000-year-old bone flutes discovered in caves of the Swabian Jura from the Aurignacian period (see bit.ly/3ITVDQC). Musi- cal instruments are considered the most specific form of archaeological evidence for humans’ nonverbal sonic expression. Therefore, musical acoustics research can aid in evaluating sounds that archaeologically evidenced instruments could make. However, explorations of instru- ment acoustics alone cannot reconstruct ancient music; the places where music was made are indicators about many aspects of musical behaviors as well as experiences that can be related to spatial acoustics. Instruments, people, Figure 1. Archaeologically excavated marine shell of Charonia lampas from the Marsoulas Cave (Haute-Garonne, France). 1 (Top left): side view. 2 (Bottom left): front view with the anatomical areas indicated. 3 (Bottom center): vestiges of red pigment (image enhanced with Dstretch software). 4 (Bottom right): tracing of the red dots and lines that are visible on the enhanced photo. Very similar red dots, produced with the fingertips, are present on the walls of the Marsoulas Cave. 5 (Top center): set of red dots forming a bison silhouette (length, 1.10 m). 6 (Top right): geometric sign formed by a double line of dots (shown with a centimeter scale). Photos 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 from C. Fritz; drawing 4 from G. Tosello. Figure 1 previously published in Fritz et al. (2021, Figure 1). 52 Acoustics Today • Summer 2022 | Volume 18, issue 2 ©2022 Acoustical Society of America. All rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.1121/AT.2022.18.2.52