ABSTRACT
Men and women sheltered from weather and danger in caves, and perhaps the very first thing they noticed was how the sound of themselves changed, reverberating back in strange ways that they did not recognise. Moving deeper into the darkness, they had only their voices as sonar to navigate tunnels and passages, and they would have quickly learned that a changed sound meant an altered space. The field of archaeoacoustics unlocks important meanings to subterranean spaces, and readers see our own rooms, chambers and halls in new ways, reflected by a time scale they had perhaps not considered before. A journalistic, news-based documentary may seek answers to questions, whereas the aim of an impressionistic, sound painting feature might often be to pose new questions, and create a sense of wonder, even awe in the listener's mind.
