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)”
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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…
hey robert, i’m a little skeptical too…i’m hoping this post might get some folks looking in to it.
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”
thanks dan! i was in the car on the way back from the airport, nice find!
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.”
This was ripped off from Greg Benford’s story “Time Shards.”
http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook243.htm
Sorry.
Wasn’t this the plot of a Greg Bear short story 15 or so years back?
I vote “hoax”.
Wasn’t this the plot of a Greg Bear short story 15 or so years back?
I vote “hoax”.
I remember reading the Sci-Fi story this hoax is based on. While possible in some quantom way. This particular site is a hoax.
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!
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!