Archaeoacoustics, the study of sound in the past, is increasingly attracting attention. Although some work, particularly in musical archaeology, had been conducted previously, the field received a significant boost when the term itself was coined by Scarre and Lawson in their 2006 volume of that name, which brought together two major distinct strands: archaeomusicology and the acoustics of archaeological spaces. Since 2006, the number of publications has steadily been growing, yet the field remains in its infancy. This is partly due to the complexity inherent in the analysis of sound, which requires multidisciplinary collaboration across various disciplines. This complexity is reflected in the approaches followed and the contributors from diverse academic fields, including not only archaeology but also anthropology, architecture, classics, history, art history, and sound engineering. The aim is to provide an overview of a selection of the different topics covered by the field of archaeoacoustics. Contributors aspire to advancing the field through innovative approaches, including those stemming from psychology, a field not commonly associated with archaeology. Additionally, the book seeks to expand the field by developing a number of new ideas based on novel case studies. It presents some of the results derived from major research projects, such as the ERC funded Artsoundscapes and the Soundspace projects led by DíazAndreu and Knighton, respectively. The book will cover a wide range of topics, including a synthetic history of research provided in the introduction, theories about the origins of music in early humans, experimental archaeomusicology, approaches from the fields of neuroacoustics and psychoacoustics, experimental studies of portable and fixed lithophones and other musical instruments, explorations of soundscapes, representations of sound in early medieval frescoes, late medieval urbanscapes, and postmedieval proxemics. Case studies are located in America, Asia, and Europe. AUTHORS: Neemias Santos da Rosa is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Bordeaux. He holds a PhD from the Universitat Roviri i Virgili and specialises in experimental archaeology applied to the study of prehistoric art especially the technological, social, acoustic and symbolic aspects of rock art production, with a particular focus on the Iberian Peninsula. Margarita Díaz-Andreu is an ICREA Research Professor based at the University of Barcelona (Spain). She holds a PhD from the Complutense University of Madrid. She specialises in prehistoric archaeology, focusing on the rock art and archaeoacoustics of Western Europe. Additionally, she is deeply involved in heritage studies and the history of archaeology, particularly emphasising the history of women in professional archaeology and the politics of identity in archaeology, including social engagement, nationalism and colonialism, ethnicity, and gender. 86 b/w photographs and line drawings
