Throughout my art career, I have had the privilege to learn and explore ceramics of all types and styles. Influenced by my Korean ceramics professor, my interest in other cultures and worldly design flourished. I had also taken a course in Anthropology and Archaeology. I have had my share in ancient pottery and dissecting information from small shards of fired clay. I love problem solving and logical thinking, so this course was a lot of fun and very interesting for me.

Ancient ceramic vessels have always been studied in Anthropology and can tell us alot about ancient culture, especially how they were made, what they were made for, what purpose they served and gave us insight on how they lived. My father recently told me about a popular phenomenon in recent news. Rumor has it that ancient ceramic pottery opened up a possibility of time travel through sound and voice. Well, some might believe that. Not so much time travel, though. It is said that, through small indents and grooves within ancient, wheel-thrown pottery, we are able to grasp the very key to revisiting ancient events from 6,500 years ago.

A Belgian video has gained popularity over the internet. In French, scientists reveal this remarkable idea of archaeological time travel. While using computer scans of detailed grooves within the ancient pottery, they were able to extract audio recordings within the artwork. Similar to a vinyl record player, they fixed a stylus to a sliding support to give uniformity to the windings, held on the pottery beforehand. With the right conditions, the device is able to detect sounds. This idea is similar to how vinyl records were made back in the day. These sounds, said to include talking and laughing, were created by sound wave vibrations from the ceramic tools during the creation of the pottery.

Could this be true, or is this another myth that people wish was true? The thought that vibrations and acoustics within certain artifacts could potentially be a type of ancient recorder s and we could listen to people talking is amazing! My curiosity in this subject led me to research this topic in more depth.

Through online searching and article, blog, and forum post reading, I have learned that this subject is a much bigger scientific endeavor than I thought, even though there are not many experiments done, nor much written research. The study of this theory is most commonly referred to as Archaeoacoustics or Paleoacoustics – the recording of audio from before the invention of recording. Sounds would be recorded unintentionally through other means, such as throwing a pot. A few researchers and Archaeological professors put this theory to the test back in 1969 and found noise produced by the potter’s wheel during construction process. However nothing like voices or laughter was heard from any previous experiments.

After reading through numerous forums and articles, I encountered a lot of denial about the practicality and truth about this too-good-to-be-true breakthrough in Anthropology. Unfortunately for believers, the creator of the video clip revealed it to be just an April Fool’s. This creative and sly prank was actually shot for videographer’s art project, based off of previous discussions and science-fiction plots on Paleoacoustics, dating back to the 1830s. The most common of these were those same science journals from 1969. You can read more about these and the science-fiction stories in “Language Log: A phonographic phony”.

I wish I could share with you the original Belgian video. However, during my research I have not been able to find the specific video clip. Every link I found took me to an empty space that no longer displays any video. All of the videos were deleted for an unknown reason; though, I think it may have something to do with the fact that it isn’t April anymore.

For a simple practical joke, I give the creator of this mysterious video a lot of credit. I think the thought and research behind it was very well executed and they fooled a lot of people. It also sparked a lot of controversy among historians and archeologists, as well as artists. This just goes to show – don’t believe everything you hear or see on the internet.

Visit these sources for more information on this subject:
Ancient & Lost Civilizations
Audio Extraction From Ancient Pottery
Language Log: A phonographic phony