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ancient music in a site that was previously only renowned for its elaborate visual artwork. In the cave, around 500 motifs, including geometric markings and more than 340 paintings of animal and human figures both engraved and painted in red (hematite) and black (charcoal), cover the short walls of a limestone corridor long ago carved out by water. “The art of Marsoulas is of profound stylistic origi- nality with few equivalents in the region from the same period” including naturalistic horses, bison, and other horned animals (Fritz et al., 2016). Marsoulas cave’s small cross section is a physical con- straint for both visual and musical expressive activities within the cave that guides hypotheses about possible social configurations, limiting where and how many people could have engaged with the art and acoustics. For example, it could be practical to project the sound of the powerful conch shell along the median axis of 100 meters (328 feet), yet even a few people within the cave could dampen the sound, as demonstrated in performance tests. The first step in a music archaeological investigation is questioning the musical premise. Only recently was the Marsoulas conch identified as a possible sound-produc- ing instrument, nearly a century after its archaeological recovery. Initial research on the seashell documented its physical and acoustical features and presented physi- cal evidence for its modification and use as a tool for sonic expression (Fritz et al., 2021). The investigators’ approach to the Marsoulas conch included characteriz- ing human modifications to the shell that include strike marks around its lip, an opened spire, and a mysterious circular perforation that may have pierced the external spire and extends through two turns of the horn inside (Fritz et al., 2021). Performance acoustics were explored at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Toulouse, France (MSHS-T) where a musicologist and horn player performed the seashell as a lip-valve “natural horn.” The performance of the artifact shell produced sounding tones of fundamental frequencies at 256, 265, and 285 Hz, with harmonics typical of such instruments having a conical bore (interior cavity) (Wolfe, 2020). To corroborate their experimental verification of the sea- shell as a sound-producing instrument, the investigators sought ethnographical analogies for similarly modified shells, which sometimes have external mouthpiece modifications and additions, as shown in Figure 3, right panel, 6-10. Despite the Marsoulas conch’s compliance in tonal sound production, its researcher-performer noted its jagged and uncomfortable mouthpiece, which bears evidence of prior application of “a thin layer of a brownish col- ored material preserved on the outside and inside of the apex” (Fritz et al., 2021, p. 1) that is hypothesized as a substance used either to smooth the mouthpiece or to affix an attachment. Curiously, even with its pointy spire removed as required to create a natural mouthpiece, the Marsoulas conch was perforated by a 1-centimeter-diam- eter circular hole bored through two turns of its coiled conical interior, enabling the insertion of a narrow tube as illustrated in Figure 3. Although these aligned circular perforations can function to stabilize an inserted tube,   Figure 3. The Charonia wind instrument. Left panel: 1 (left): sagittal section of the 3D model of the shell that makes it possible to visualize the hole drilled at the level of the sixth spire. 2 (Top right): detail of the circular perforation drilled from the apex. The streaks on the edge are due to a skidding tool. 3 (Middle right): top view of the 3D model showing the perforation. 4 (Bottom right): 3D cross section at the level of the seventh spire. 5: (Bottom right): the conch of Marsoulas in its Magdalenian context (hypothetical restitution). 6: (Top left): conch from Southeast Asia, the mouth of which is covered with a black coating, intended to protect the lips of the blower. 7 and 8: Conch from Syria (left middle) and detail of its chipped mouth (top middle), close to that of Marsoulas. 9 and 10: Conch from New Zealand (middle right) and its mouthpiece made of a decorated bone tube (top right). 3D model captures 1 to 4 from C. Fritz; drawing 5 from G. Tosello; photos 6 to 10 from E. Kasarhérou, Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris, France. Figure 3 previously published in Fritz et al. (2021, Figure 3). Summer 2022 • Acoustics Today 55 


































































































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