A recent study, published in the journal Antiquity, sheds light on how the ancient Pueblo people communicated. They used conch-shell trumpets, which were vital for keeping their communities together and organizing social life.
Professor Ruth Van Dyke from Binghamton University led the research team. They used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and modeling techniques to study the soundscapes of the Chaco region in northwest New Mexico.
The study centered on Chaco Canyon, located within the Chaco Culture National Historic Park. It’s famous for its many small homes and tall buildings called great houses. Archaeologists think that around CE 1050 to 1130, about 2,300 people lived there. This suggests it was a busy city in ancient times, as reported by Archaeology Mag.
There are twelve huge canyon great houses made of sandstone, like Pueblo Bonito. These are some of the best-preserved buildings from before the time of the Spanish arrival in the Southwest. Some of the walls still stand tall, reaching up to 8 meters high, as mentioned in the study.
Conch-shell trumpets buried in graves at Chaco Canyon
Conch-shell trumpets, which were important for Pueblo rituals back then, were found buried in graves at Chaco Canyon.
The research team used Soundshed Analysis to digitally recreate how these trumpets would have sounded from the tall buildings. They considered factors like height, background noise, and distance.
NEW Call of the conch: computer modelling suggests community leaders in 9th-11th century AD Chaco Canyon, New Mexico constructed their communities around the sound of conch-shell trumpets.
Calling all archaeology fans to this #AntiquityThread 1/13
Richard Loose pic.twitter.com/mZEHZvLiSK
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ntiquity Journal (@AntiquityJ) May 2, 2024
By simulating the trumpet sounds from five different communities in Chaco, researchers figured out that the sound would have reached almost all nearby settlements. This would have made communal organization much easier without the need to send messengers between different communal areas on foot.
Professor Van Dyke, the lead author of the study, compared this to how medieval church bells would ring to gather people for mass. She thinks that the conch-shell trumpets might have been used in a similar way to signal important communal events, especially religious ceremonies.
200 houses found, each with different habitation sites
Apart from Chaco Canyon, researchers have found about 200 more great houses spread across the area. Each of these houses was like the heart of a community with many habitation sites around it.
Professor Van Dyke wanted to see if these communities outside of the canyon had similar connections between the landscape, how they were organized, and sound, like what they saw in Chaco Canyon.
They discovered that these wind instruments were important for communication between different communities. The study also demonstrates how easily assembling groups of people was important for the survival of ancient communities.