By Diego Moreno
Picture this: you cross the Atlantic for a trip to Las Vegas, and you have a whole week ahead of you. What do you do? Casinos, magic shows, fancy restaurants, shopping and partying may be the typical agenda, but what about going to the middle of the desert to pop some balloons while admiring ancient petroglyph sites and enjoying the serenity of the desert?
Believe it or not, this is exactly what we did on April 2024 -a remarkable fieldwork campaign in collaboration with the Nevada Bureau of Land Management and Stratum Unlimited LLC to study the acoustics of some sites of the White River Narrows Archaeological District. We couldn’t have been more fortunate, our deepest gratitude goes out to them for believing in our team to make this extraordinary project a reality!
This time, the three lucky chosen for the adventure were Margarita Díaz-Andreu, our esteemed Principal Investigator, Daniel Benitez, my acoustician colleague and ‘Gaditan’ friend, and finally myself, Diego Moreno. In addition to the technical team, postdoctoral researcher Dr. Lidia Alvarez was also present remotely from Spain to offer us her, as always, invaluable advice and expertise, even when 9000 km apart. Johannes H. N. Loubser (Jannie) from Stratum Unlimited LLC, the person who had contacted us to do the work was also with us the whole time. He is one of the experts in the area, where he has been in charge of much of the conservation of its rock writings —a term preferred by the Southern Paiute, descendants of the petroglyphs’ creators, instead of rock writings.
Our journey began, as usual, with a long list of preparations and logistics here in Barcelona. On April 7th, after a long flight, we arrived at Las Vegas at almost dawn in Spanish time, and, of course, we were instantly greeted by slot machines at the boarding gates. A strong first impression indeed! Traversing the airport and its many neon lights and colourful advertisements while struggling to fight the jetlag, we met Jannie, who accompanied us throughout the whole journey. After dinner and a visit to Walmart on the outskirts of Vegas, we headed to our final destination, a small but quite cozy motel in the town of Alamo. Situated in the Pahranagat Valley, Alamo is perhaps most famous for its proximity to innumerable rock writing sites and wilderness refuges, as well as the more esoterically infamous area 51 and extraterrestrial highway.
Figure 1: Aerial view of Las Vegas’s STRAT tower, Mc Carran airport slots and finally, Alamo Inn peace and quiet © Artsoundscapes Project
The following day, after some much needed rest, it was time to truly experience the American country experience with a strong breakfast at the local gas station, where all sorts of over-the-top trinkets and exotic foods (at least by our Spanish standards) could be found. Now full of energy, we decided to visit some sites in the vicinity of Ash Springs while we waited for a scheduled tour the very same morning. In this preliminary visit we saw petroglyphs carved into mostly isolated boulders, with motifs including animals, human and abstract figures. One of the first thing I noticed was that many figures were much more difficult to see depending if they were in the shade or not. Given the changing nature of lights and shadows throughout the day, and the contrast between the rock colour and the carvings, one cannot help but wonder if any of this influenced the communities who inhabited in this area in some way.
Figure 2: Ash springs petroglyphs on the shade and the sun © Artsoundscapes Project
In any case, after getting a taste of what we would encounter on our main site, we met some members of the Bureau of Land management that very gracefully toured us around another group of sites on Mt. Irish to the North of Alamo, this time in a much more concentrated area with larger rock formations. I was very impressed by the complexity and abstract thought put on some of the motifs we found, including pregnant animals, spiritual energy in the form of long twisted horns, spirals, long eared canids, and even anthropomorphic figures with utensils such as shields or hats. (some of them I have to say do look suspiciously close to UFO’s, but I guess the whole modern alien superstitions can be very contagious). We were also able to observe the partial eclipse!
Figure 3: A small selection of Mt. Irish visited petroglyph sites © Artsoundscapes Project
Finishing our tour, we continued on our own visiting many other sites along the actual White River Narrows region always guided by Jannie. This area comprises a series of winding canyons with tall cliff like walls where most of the rock writings was pecked. Using the inner Andalusian talent of our colleague Daniel as our designated hand-clapper, we tested for any acoustical effects, finding that the most common phenomenon was the presence of echoes bouncing off the various vertical rocks when standing at a certain distance of the decorated panels. With the knowledge of the acoustical effect to be measured in our minds and ears, we were now ready to carry out the acoustical characterisation of one specific target site, a particular place slightly to the north and outside the canyon area, with a high concentration of impressive petroglyphs as well as archaeological evidence of two rock structures called vision quest blinds, thought to have been places where ancient rites of communing with supernatural beings took place.
Figure 4: Marga and Jannie at the beginning of the White River Narrows Archaeological District (top left), and several photos taken during the inspection of NV State Site number 26LN21. Bottom right picture depicts one of the two vision quests structures on the site’s elevated second level after the steep walls seen on the top right and bottom left photos © Artsoundscapes Project
After a thorough surveyance to determine the shape and dimensions of the target site that included two height levels and increasingly steeper slopes on the sides, several emitter and receiver positions were distributed. This placement was carefully based on hypotheses considering the potential functionalities of the location in ancient cultures. Our methodology this time deviated slightly from our usual approach, opting to use controlled balloon pops as the sound source due to their greater portability and stronger impulsive excitation capabilities, which make them ideal for echo recognition. By employing this technique alongside our omnidirectional and ambisonics microphones, we were able to directly record spatial impulse responses, that can then be used to derive some acoustical parameters and to analyse the direction of arrival of the main reflections when paired with 360º pictures. This approach is particularly useful for determining whether perceived echoes originate from specific locations with rock writings, such as a particular panel or rock formation, suggesting that acoustics could have played a significant role in the placement of the rock writings.
And thus, after three days of hard work of inflating what felt like 500 balloons, fighting against the desert sun, numerous spiky tumbleweeds, sudden gusts of both winds and military jets that often crossed the sound barrier, we were finally done with the acoustic measurements. In-between days though we had the pleasure of going to an American diner at Caliente, visiting crazy alien themed points of interest, and most of all, enjoying the relatively fresh and clean Nevada night sky.
Figure 5: Photos taken during fieldwork, including the various steps followed: equipment setup and calibration (top left), balloon popping and IR registration (top right and bottom left) and balloon inflation to a fixed diameter (bottom right) © Artsoundscapes Project
And so it was that, just when we got used to the American hours and lifestyle we packed all our equipment and hopped back on the road to Vegas, making sure to stop at some other points of interest such as a Stonehenge replica with nice acoustics called Ryanhenge, that is next to a farm with an alpaca, okapi and the reconstruction of a train station with several historical trains and various classical cars. All this is located in private land, and we were fortunate enough to be allowed entrance. Definitely some picturesque people and places out there if you’re willing to look!
Figure 6: Stonehenge replica on the road back to Vegas © Artsoundscapes Project
Yet, nothing could have prepared us for our last day in Vegas, where we had to stay one night to catch a very early flight. I have to say the contrast of the calm, quiet countryside, with the chaos of the city of sin resembling a somewhat dystopian future was quite shocking. We wondered then if the countless flashy structures and neon lights were indeed full of the promised magic and excitement, or were merely a façade for the eternal wheel of capitalism and gambling. But, hey! I guess it’s something to decide when seen with your own eyes. After all, as they say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!
Figure 7: Some snippets of our brief time in Las Vegas © Artsoundscapes Project
The end of the journey took our 3 hours of sleep bodies back to the McCarran airport to catch our flight. After wishing a safe return journey to Jannie, our most wonderful and caring host, we embarked on the time machine that is a transatlantic flight back to Barcelona. Thus, we departed from the new world back to the old world, treasuring a once in a lifetime experience full of beautiful contrasts.
For the results obtained in this fieldwork click here