6,500-year-old voices recorded in pottery (just a hoax)

Craft & Design Science

Mp3Ottery
THE RAW FEED has a post about audio that was recorded in pottery – “Belgian researchers have been able to use computer scans of the grooves in 6,500-year-old pottery to extract sounds — including talking and laughter — made by the vibrations of the tools used to make the pottery.” [via] Link (the site and video is in French). Turns out, it’s not true – MAKE reader danman_d says “This site – “Poisson d’avril de journal televise”, translates to: “April fools newscast”.

22 thoughts on “6,500-year-old voices recorded in pottery (just a hoax)

  1. robertadams1 says:

    has anyone independently verified this post? It seems more like an elaborate net.hoax than the real thing. A reference to a scholarly journal would be great…

  2. philliptorrone says:

    hey robert, i’m a little skeptical too…i’m hoping this post might get some folks looking in to it.

  3. danman_d says:

    No way. This set off my BS detector immediately. And verification:

    http://www.bilgesehir.com/c_filmo_principale/e_vases_sonores/Bilge%20Sehir%20-%20Vases%20sonores.htm

    This site. “Poisson d’avril de journal televise”, translates to: “April fools newscast”

  4. philliptorrone says:

    thanks dan! i was in the car on the way back from the airport, nice find!

  5. raincrow says:

    Sorry, not a chance this is real. April Fool’s.

    Not to mention it is ripped off from a short story by Gregory Benford called “Time Shards.”

  6. raincrow says:

    This was ripped off from Greg Benford’s story “Time Shards.”

    http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook243.htm

    Sorry.

  7. travis j icorcoran says:

    Wasn’t this the plot of a Greg Bear short story 15 or so years back?

    I vote “hoax”.

  8. travis j icorcoran says:

    Wasn’t this the plot of a Greg Bear short story 15 or so years back?

    I vote “hoax”.

  9. ahwoo says:

    I remember reading the Sci-Fi story this hoax is based on. While possible in some quantom way. This particular site is a hoax.

  10. aallan says:

    It’s a hoax, see the comments on my blog post about this,

    http://www.babilim.co.uk/blog/2006/02/6500-year-old-voice-recording.html#comments

    Pity!

  11. kryten007 says:

    There was an X-Files episode about this too. I believe it was the one where some Hollywood people were making a movie about the X-Files. In that story, i think it was a bowl that had recorded Christ resurrecting Lazarus, thus causing the modern dead to rise when it was played back!

    As cool of a concept as this is, i can’t imagine wet clay would be a good recording medium at all. MAYBE it could work if you had something set up to specifically do this (a phonograph-type contraption), but there is no way ambient noise could cause a potter’s tool/hand to vibrate like that.

    This would be a GREAT story for the Mythbusters, though! Adam, i know you read Make!

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