9.

Sensing the place: sounds and landscape perception

Steve Mills

Introduction
Based on recent research in the Teleorman River Valley (southern Romania) this paper promotes the significance of sound as a source of information integral to prehistoric daily life in the fifth millennium cal. BC. I make reference to a recent film to emphasise the importance of sound as a medium that contextualises peoples lives and to demonstrate the power sound has to convey information integral to the communication of ideas, narratives, drama, character identities and entertainment. Next, I discuss research in the Romanian study area and provide examples of the results and their significance. I suggest that sound (or more appropriately acoustic information) signalled the proximity and co-presence of animals and people and that its ecological structure contributed to peoples successful engagements with their surroundings. Familiarity with acoustic information variously distributed in different topographic and vegetation zones provided people with an implicit working knowledge of local resources; the association of acoustic information with different tasks heralded the ability and success of practising agents. Acoustic information associated with occupied tell settlements contributed to their monumentality, and this would have been particularly important in their earliest phases of use. Finally, acoustic information originating from mammals and birds is proposed as a new approach for considering their value to people who were embracing ideas of domesticity in the Neolithic.

Matrices and tapestries

In the conference version of this paper I referred to the film The Matrix: Reloaded (Ellis et al . 2003) to emphasise the integrated relationship between sound and vision. This relationship is essential for contextualising the sets, the characters, the drama, the action and the narrative of the scenes in the film. Beyond the world of

film and along side other modes of communication and information transfer (e.g. touch, smell, taste and kinaesthetics), the integration of sound and vision is fundamental to the way people live their daily lives knowledgeably within their surroundings. There is a scene in The Matrix: Reloaded in which one of the main characters is being interrogated and he is in great pain; his expression and screams vividly convey that he is very unsettled. There is tension in the scene; you can feel it and sense it when watching the film. If the sound is removed, however, there is tension of a different kind because certain details, certain information, are missing, bracketed off when you know they should be there. There is no scream, there is no soundtrack and the story does not quite work. Watching the film with no soundtrack is frustrating; it is unsettling and leaves you wanting more. There is more going on than meets the eye and without the extra detail the narrative seems frozen. The Neolithic likewise requires a soundtrack, and it is this feeling of always wanting more that has led me to study the significance of sound in the fifth millennium cal. BC. The concept of a matrix is a useful one; it suggests that there is more that lies beneath. Underneath there is a different world. If we acknowledge and enter the matrix then we get a little closer to that world. What is seen on the surface may be only a faade; it may be superficial. By including other senses perhaps we can unravel a little more of the Neolithic matrix. The idea of a matrix is useful for thinking about sound, for appreciating that powerful phenomena in the world can come into being, be substantiated and be maintained through a medium which is often transient, ephemeral and continuously changing. The idea of a matrix also implies that when one can see beneath the surface, something that appears stable and settled is anything but. While the world presented before our eyes may seem stable (even timeless), this sense can be illusionary. By studying sound we may be better able to appreciate the

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Steve Mills musical instruments, the correlations between rock art and echoes, as well as the acoustic properties of caves, rock shelters and prehistoric monuments (e.g. Dams 1984; Devereux and Jahn 1996; Lawson et al. 1998; Lund 1981; Waller 2000; Watson and Keating 1999; 2000). My own research aims to contribute to studies of this kind by placing particular emphasis on the sounds that are associated with daily practice in contexts relevant to the Neolithic in southeast Europe. It is necessary to think in multisensory terms, for that is how life operates. In an ever-changing, unsettled world, the temporary stability of the visual can seem comforting. The visual can give the impression that some things are timeless, are monumental, whereas other components of the world (sound, touch, taste, smell for example, and social interaction, daily/seasonal rhythms, river systems) are continuously changing. It is only by bringing these various attributes of the world together that there can be such things as world-views. Life can change in an instant. An event, a sound, a glance can profoundly alter ones understanding of the world, and very often such happenings can change the course of ones life. There are occasions when you hear something which should not be heard, or you do not hear something you were expecting to hear. The same applies to information gathered through the other senses or by other means. Such times can be very unsettling or, conversely, they can be very stimulating and inspirational. We must explore ways that allow us to add this kind of flux to our archaeological enquiries, because, very often, it is just such instances that make life worthwhile. Sound is a way of getting to grips with such aspects of past ways of life, because, by its very nature, sound is dynamic. For there to be sound, something must be happening, moving, vibrating. Sound provides information about the dyna-

dynamism of past ways of life and understandings of the world. Like the ever-streaming sequence of apparently random numbers in the matrix, the continuously changing world of acoustic information in our surroundings combine and constitute one attribute of what we think of as place, of landscape, and of modes of dwelling. Life of any period is always immersed in a matrix of acoustic information. Threads of acoustic information interweave like a tapestry or, in musical terminology, a composition (Fig. 9.1). This is not a single rigid entity; it comes into being through rhythm, proximities, co-presence, similarities and continuities. To understand acoustic information, we need to discover its fabric (texture) and form (structure/ rhythm); how it is interwoven at different times and places. I suggest that the definition of a place in auditory terms is the complexity of the composition/matrix/ tapestry of that location. It is the nature of the world that things are always happening, changing, transforming, beginning and ending, in cycles of life, death, seasons and rhythms. We must embrace this in our investigations; instability, the unsettled nature of the world is often the norm. In the apparent chaos, however, there are patterns. That is how we make sense of sound, by isolating those segments of acoustic information amongst many others that have the same origin. It is an epistemological challenge to search out sound in the data, a challenge which has been embraced by other disciplines such as anthropology, ethnomusicology, geography, acoustic ecology and soundscape studies (e.g. Feld 1996; Jackson 1968; Needham 1967; Pocock 1989; 1993; Porteous 1986; Rodaway 1994; Schafer 1973; 1977; 1985; Stoller 1989; 1997; Truax 1984). Archaeologists have studied past sounds by examining, for example,

Figure 9.1 Weaving Mgura, a tell in the Teleorman River Valley, southern Romania.

Sensing the place: sounds and landscape perception mism of the world; it is not reducible to mere stimuli because it is always ecologically structured, and our auditory systems have evolved to understand ecologically structured acoustic information (Bregman 1994; Gibson 1968; 1979). There is a fundamental relationship between sound and the rhythms of life and the world; Ingold (1993) has referred to this in his concept of taskscapes. I suggest we take on board this concept at a simpler level and study how rhythms in the world/life and sound operate together and how they can aid our understanding of the past. If, as perception psychologists have done, we accept that sound is a conveyor of information about the world, then we know that its study will further our enquiry of how people come to understand and effectively (or ineffectively) act within that world.

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daily activities, people generate acoustic information that is integral to creating, maintaining and contesting social relations. Fourth, it recognises that the apprehension of acoustic information need not be entirely conscious (although there are many instances in which it is) and that its production and comprehension can be an unintended consequence of particular modes of dwelling.

Auditory scene analysis

The foundation of auditory archaeology is the concept of auditory scene analysis developed in perception psychology (Bregman 1994). An auditory scene represents all the sounds a person can hear at one given place and time; as individuals move, their auditory scenes move with them. Auditory scene analysis is ecological and draws on the work of Gibson (1968; 1979) and it is contextual; it considers how sound is encoded with information about the world that surrounds individuals. It recognises that people are, at all times and in all places, immersed in an array of ecologically structured sounds that are integral to their successful engagement with their surroundings, and with other people and animals. It acknowledges that the human body is the basic measure of auditory phenomena. When fragments of acoustic information display sufficient proximity, continuity and similarity in space and/or time they can be grouped together as most probably having a common origin. Such grouping is how the auditory system works; it groups together acoustic information into coherent auditory streams (such as a series of footsteps) that when combined, provide the contents of auditory scenes.

Agency
Sound can provide an important new dimension for thinking about agency and the consequences of past social interaction. Sounds associated with particular places, architecture and the production and use of material culture influence people in ways that are not necessarily conscious. Although people create and hear sounds through their daily activities and social interactions, they need not be entirely aware of how those sounds mediate those activities and engagements. Sound can alert a person immediately to the presence of other individuals, or of resources. On hearing a sound, a person knows that something is happening and, probably, where it is happening; this may encourage them to go there or avoid going there. Sound communicates information and can initiate response. Through familiarity, people become knowledgeable about their surroundings, in part, via the distribution and content of acoustic information.

Teleorman river valley case study

The 10 10km Lceni-Mgura reach of the Teleorman River is located in the Romanian Plain 85km south-west of Bucureti and 6km north-east of the modern town of Alexandria (Fig. 9.2). The Teleorman River, a Danube tributary, flows in a south-easterly direction across the reach and is joined by the Clania River; before the confluence there is an area of higher ground, referred to as the middle terrace, which separates the two rivers. In the Lceni-Mgura reach the Teleorman valley floor is approximately 2km wide and reaches a maximum of 3km at the confluence of the Teleorman and Clania Rivers. The rivers have sinuous courses with occasional large meanders. Today, the study area is a stable geomorphological zone with no major flooding events and no lateral movement of the river. To the west and east, the valley floor is bounded by higher ground, referred to as the west and east terraces, which reaches a height of 90 masl. The valley floor has three topographical zones: the eastern valley edge zone, the open valley floor zone, and the river zone. There are three vegetation zones within the study area: the meadow zone, the grassland zone and

Auditory archaeology
Auditory archaeology developed during my doctoral research (Mills 2000; 2001). Research aimed to determine the significance of sound as a source of information integral to prehistoric daily life in the fifth millennium BC, and with particular reference to the emergence and histories of tell settlements in a 10 10km study area in the Teleorman River Valley, southern Romania. Furthermore, research aimed to demonstrate that sound, in general, is a recoverable category of information critical to understanding past ways of life. Auditory archaeology has four key elements. First, it acknowledges and studies the role of the human auditory system in gathering acoustic information that informs and facilitates people in their daily activities. Second, it acknowledges that the acoustic information so gathered structures and is structured by peoples surroundings and that there is an intrinsic interrelationship between the human body, acoustic information and the places in which people choose to dwell. Third, it proposes that in their

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Steve Mills

Figure 9.2 Location of the study area showing major rivers.

the woodland zone. The eastern valley edge zone has a meadow/marshland vegetation cover. The open valley floor zone is a largely dry area with vegetation consisting of herbaceous low-lying grassland intersected by sandy areas having little if any vegetation cover. The river zone has a narrow band of meadow/marshland on the banks either side of the Teleorman and Clania Rivers. There are pockets of woodland within the reach. Up on the terraces there are large areas under cultivation with crops including sunflowers, maize and cereals with smaller plots in the eastern valley edge zone.

Fifth millennium cal. BC archaeology

Field walking, surface collections and limited excavations carried out between 1998 and 2000 revealed seven concentrations of Boian culture material located on raised sandy areas on the valley floor and dated to the early to middle fifth millennium BC (Bailey et al. 1999; Bailey et al. 2001; Bailey et al. 2002; Bailey et al. 2003; Mills 1999a; 1999b; Fig. 9.3). Boian material included ceramics, building material, worked flint and bone as well as a number of small finds such as fragmentary figurines and flint implements (Andreescu and Mirea 1999; 2001).

People dwelt in short-lived structures on a temporary basis in close association with rivers, practised animal husbandry, hunted wild animals, and grew and tended crops (Blescu 2001; Bogaard 2001; Hait 2001a; 2001b). The commitment to any particular place on the valley floor appears short-lived, a situation which was probably as much to do with river and floodplain dynamics as it was with a desire to maintain mobility as a significant component in the lifestyle. During the second half of the fifth millennium cal. BC people dwelt and built structures at the eastern edge of the valley. When new structures were built, they were superimposed on earlier ones resulting in the emergence of tells. The presence of tells documents a greater commitment to place than was evident on the valley floor during the first half of the fifth millennium cal. BC. There are three tells in the study area: Vitneti, Mgura and Lceni (Fig. 9.3). Material culture associated with the tells includes Gumelnia ceramics from phases A1 to B2 and structures made of a substantial wooden framework and covered with clay or mud daub (Andreescu 1999; 2000). Mammal bones from Vitneti show that a similar range of domesticates and wild species were exploited in the second half of the fifth millennium cal.

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Figure 9.3 Detail of the study area showing 5th millennium cal. BC sites and sound recording stations.

BC as were during the preceding 500 years. Analyses of charred plant remains suggest that a similar range of plants were cultivated during the earlier and later periods (Bogaard 2001). There was considerable continuity in the ways that people were living their lives between the first and second halves of the fifth millennium cal. BC. People continued to cultivate barely, wheat and legumes, to husband domesticated species of cattle, sheep, goat and pigs, and to hunt similar ranges of wild animals. People also continued to build and dwell in structures on former gravel bars surrounded by wetlands (Neumann and Hait 1999). The significant difference in the second half of the fifth millennium cal. BC is that people chose to build and dwell at the same places over many generations.

Human activities in the study area during the present

Today, people build and dwell in permanent farmsteads at the eastern valley edge in the modern villages of Vitne ti and M gura. The commitment to place is greatest at the eastern valley edge because of the proximity of fertile land for grazing animals and cultivating crops. Most activities occur within and around farmsteads and,

in their yards, people keep their livestock including pigs, horses, goats, chickens, geese and turkeys. In addition, most farmsteads have one or two cattle that are taken out to graze on the meadows during the day and led back to farmsteads at night. Adjacent to the meadows, plots of cultivated land are maintained by individual farmsteads for growing maize and melons. Out on the open valley floor, in the areas of grassland, people build only temporary structures that usually last for only one year or a single season. Between 1998 and 2000 no single temporary structure lasted more than a year; returning for subsequent fieldwork seasons, it was clear that the previous years temporary structures had gone and new ones had appeared at different locations on the valley floor. The structures are usually made almost entirely of wood although some have corrugated iron panels. Most structures occur on their own and are considerably isolated although, on occasion, there may be two or three structures spaced approximately 100m apart. Structures are used by shepherds and pig herders and enable them to remain with their animals at night. There is a clear distinction between the ways in which people use different zones of the valley today, as most activities take place at the eastern valley edge. In the

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Steve Mills recordings with topographic, geomorphological and archaeological data sets in a Geographical Information System (GIS) and then identified spatial relationships amongst variables. Based on variation in sound, topography, vegetation cover and the geographic distribution of human and animal activities, I identified a number of auditory character areas. The process of identification was a mixture of prescriptive and descriptive methods. Prescriptive methods involved the attribution of topography, vegetation cover and human activity data within the study area (e.g. woodland, grassland, meadows, open valley, rivers, valley edge, permanent structures, temporary structures, tracks and river crossings); descriptive methods involved the attribution of auditory data. All auditory streams identified in recordings were included in subsequent analysis. Auditory character areas include the eastern valley edge, the open valley floor and the river zone. Eastern valley edge/meadow zone. The fabric or texture in any given zone (or place) is an indicator of the density and complexity of activities, of how different kinds of acoustic information interweave in that zone. The fabric of the composition is determined by, and provides details of, the relationship between different resources. This is of particular significance with respect to birds, mammals and the activities of people. The

present, as in the past, it appears that people favour the meadows and marshland zones for long-term commitments to place. People do not dwell on a permanent basis on the valley floor. For the most part, only shepherds and herders are to be found on the grasslands which are reserved solely for the grazing of herds of sheep and goats or of cattle and water buffalo. Today, the study area is a stable geomorphological zone; the Lceni-Mgura reach is understood to have had similar conditions in the second half of the fifth millennium cal. BC. This correlation provides the basis for collecting primary data in the study area in the present.

Research methodology
Research identified 16 Global Positioning System georeferenced recording stations based on Neolithic activity areas, variation in topography, geomorphology and vegetation, and modern human activities. Using sound recording equipment I collected primary data at each recording station. Each sound recording was of standard 600-second duration to allow comparison; to assist descriptive attribution, additional information was collected on accompanying record sheets. Using computer-based technologies and the principle of auditory streams, I identified and quantified the auditory content of the sound recordings. I integrated the content of the

Figure 9.4 The eastern valley edge at Tell Mgura.

Sensing the place: sounds and landscape perception eastern valley edge (Fig. 9.4) is an area of meadows where permanent dwellings are located with many people, animals and insects in close proximity. There are many different sources of acoustic information, often occurring at the same time; auditory scenes are consistently busy. The fabric of the composition in this zone is dense and complex because the different kinds of acoustic information are tightly woven; it is polyphonic. Where the fabric is polyphonic, people are immersed in much and varied acoustic information (complex auditory scenes) informing them of the close proximity of resources, of animals and of the activities of other people. The form, or structure, of the composition indicates how the distribution of acoustic information is related temporally in different zones (or places); it provides a sense of temporal dynamics. The form of the composition in the eastern valley edge/meadow zone has much variation and contrast; it is often lively and fast. There is a sense of belonging through co-presence which is signalled through the dynamism of the acoustic information. The eastern valley edge is a sound trap. Open valley floor/grassland zone. The open valley floor/grassland zone (Fig. 9.5) has fewer and disparate sources of acoustic information, and has a fabric which is loosely interwoven. It is simpler and more porous compared to that in the eastern valley edge/meadow zone. In this zone the fabric is sometimes polyphonic but often

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monophonic (single source) or homophonic (predominately a single source but accompanied occasionally by others). A fabric of this texture informs people that there is often little happening in the immediate surroundings; there are few birds, animals and other people nearby and therefore few resources and few opportunities for interaction. Acoustic information dissipates easily. The form of the composition is generally monotonous and slow. It has a low complexity. Besides shepherds and herders moving and communicating with their mammals, there are few other people on the open valley floor and there can easily be a sense of isolation and solitude. River zone. An intermediate or heterophonic textured fabric occurs in the river zone (Fig. 9.6), where, on some occasions, it is polyphonic (particularly when people and their animals are present), at others it is mono- or homophonic. The river zone is one of medium complexity. In the river zone the form is more flexible, punctuated, and disjointed. For much of the time there is little variation; it is slow and then intermittently there are sudden or short bursts of acoustic information when people and their animals are present. There is often much acoustic information when rivers are used as resting/ watering places. River-crossings are places of transition between topographic and vegetation zones, between meadows and grassland.

Figure 9.5 The open valley floor near the Boian sites.

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Steve Mills

Figure 9.6 The river zone along the banks of the Teleorman River.

Discussion
The concept of auditory scenes provides a new way to conceptualise how acoustic information was integral to peoples daily lives and to understand these peoples surroundings in the fifth millennium cal. BC. Changes in a persons auditory scene as he or she moves from one place to the next are dependent on, and configured by, the distribution of topography, flora, fauna and the activities of other people. Thus the composition of auditory scenes is specific to particular places providing people with information enabling them to engage knowledgeably with their surroundings. As acoustic information is temporally dynamic, the composition of a persons auditory scene at a given place and time is changeable in the short-term. When returning to particular places repeatedly, however, certain acoustic information recurs. Over time, a person or group of people will come to associate particular places with certain auditory scene compositions. As people become familiar with places in the world around them, so they become knowledgeable about the range of auditory scenes in that world. Moreover, the acoustic information in auditory scenes informs people of the kind and configuration of resources in their surroundings. When hearing a particular auditory scene, people can gauge the resource potential of places.

The association between acoustic information and resources need not be conscious; with familiarity, people become implicitly knowledgeable. As people move between and dwell in different places, so the familiar acoustic information of those places becomes embodied in their understanding of the world around them. This embodiment is a consequence of having heard it all before; people become in-tune with the places they frequent and the more they frequent those places, the more tuned-in they become. Being knowledgeable about the association between acoustic information and the configuration of the surroundings is thus an unintended, but nonetheless important, consequence of having heard it all before. Through incorporation into particular modes of dwelling over time, auditory scenes and acoustic information become embedded in personal and cultural memories. As people associate places with particular combinations of acoustic information, so, reciprocally, auditory scenes contribute to personal identities. Consciously or otherwise, people associate certain auditory scenes with their own ways of life. For example, people who live for long periods of time in close association with domesticated mammals (cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and dogs) or in an area of meadows with many birds, will identify themselves, in part, with the kind of acoustic information originating from those animals and a

Sensing the place: sounds and landscape perception meadow zone. Again this need not be directly conscious; it will arise as an unintended consequence of a particular kind of dwelling. This applies equally to the built environment. Constructing and living in temporary and permanent architectures are different modes of dwelling and the kind of auditory scenes and identities associated with each will vary. A similar process extends to the different kinds of activities people engage in. Shepherds and herders for example, who spend considerable time alone with their animals and away from the main areas of settlement, will identify with and be identified by, a different range of auditory scenes than people who spend most of their time at permanent structures on a tell. With time and familiarity, acoustic information and auditory scenes contribute to knowledgeable engagement with the world and the constitution of individual and group identities. The fabric of auditory scenes is significant in providing a sense of the acoustic complexity of different zones and of the proximity of different physical happenings. The fabric of auditory scenes informs people of the concentration and proximity of different resources, of the potential for exploiting those resources and for interacting with other people. Variation in the fabric is not rigid and unchanging; it ebbs and flows with the movements and activities of people, animals, water and the weather. While for the most part the eastern valley edge/meadow zone has the most tightly interwoven polyphonic fabric, on occasion this is matched in the other zones. A similar fabric occurs in the river zone when people and animals congregate at river crossings/watering places, at places along tracks where people and their animals rest, and at places in the open valley floor/grassland zone when people, such as shepherds and herders, dwell for longer periods of time and perhaps build temporary structures. The distribution of acoustic information demonstrates the importance of the contribution of birds and mammals in particular; they are fundamental to the auditory dynamics of the study area. I suggest that the acoustic contribution of birds and mammals is an important, hitherto undervalued, dimension in their role as resources. Alongside their role in providing food and secondary products, the acoustic contribution of animals is an important resource in itself, and, on occasion, may have been their principal value. I suggest that for much of the time, people place a high premium on birds and mammals with respect to their contribution to the fabric and form of places. On hearing many birds, people are alerted to the presence of nearby places with good access to water and meadows and thus plentiful resources. The continuous contribution of birds has a significant impact on the composition of auditory scenes at places in the eastern valley edge; they are very much integral to how those places are acoustically defined. Variation in the contribution of birds during the day is likely to be unconsciously embedded in understandings of daily cycles. Perhaps variation in the acoustic contribution of

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species at different times of the year is significant in heralding changes in seasonal cycles. Although only a minor element in the archaeological record, birds may have been of major significance in the past for understanding the distribution of key resources, daily and seasonal cycles and in the formation of place identities. As mammals are heard less often than birds, the value of their acoustic contribution may have been regarded more highly. Acoustic information associated with the returning of herds or perhaps with animals in distress, contains important signals and initiates responses. The contribution of mammals is particularly relevant for thinking about the domestication of animal species. With domestication, people develop close relationships with animals; people and animals are in continuous close proximity. People come to understand their animals in part through the acoustic information they generate and come to define themselves in relation to that acoustic information. In the open valley floor/grassland zone much acoustic information is about domesticated animals; herders and shepherds understand and communicate with their animals acoustically. I suggest a similar situation in the past. People are very tolerant of the acoustic contribution of birds and mammals in the present and it is possible to suggest that a similar situation existed in the past. As domesticated animals were most likely highly valued, their acoustic contribution would be, at least tolerated, and more probably valued. Perhaps the acoustic contribution of many animals was significant as a signal of success, of wealth or of ownership. While you may not hear the person, hearing that persons animals would signal how successful that person was. This might have applied particularly to shepherds and herders. The more acoustic information from their sheep, goats and cattle, the bigger the herd and thus the more successful the person. That different domesticated species produce different kinds of acoustic information may have been significant. As a herd of cattle is larger and requires a greater investment in management, hearing it return from the grazing lands may be more significant than hearing a herd of sheep and goats. The topography at the eastern valley edge of the Teleorman/Clania is important as it contains sound and creates a sound trap. The containment and close proximity of acoustic information inform people of places where there is much going on, where there are concentrations of resources and therefore high potential for successful living. With time, the acoustic information of these places becomes associated with previous success encouraging people to return repeatedly. As the acoustic information of valley edge meadows gathers people in the first instance, so the presence of people contributes to and amplifies that acoustic information. With time, people associate the eastern valley edge with acoustic information originating from animals and repeated generations of human activities.

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Steve Mills like to extend personal thanks to Douglass Bailey and Alasdair Whittle for inviting me to participate in the (un)settling conference.

In the short-term, the localised acoustic form at tells varies according to daily and seasonal cycles. It is likely that there would have been longer-term variations in form as tells went through phases of use and abandonment. It can be suggested that, specifically because of its intensity, acoustic information associated with a new phase of tell use and occupancy was significant in constituting part of the conceptual rebirth of the settlement, heralding the new phase. Conversely, a lack of acoustic information may have been synonymous with, and symptomatic of, a long abandoned and conceptually dead tell. Tells do not start out as tells; they begin as agglomerations of structures and only through repeated phases of dwelling and the superimposition of architecture do mounds emerge. In the earliest phases of a tell the acoustic information originating and propagating from an occupied tell (or more appropriately labelled dwelling place at such a stage in its history) was perhaps a more significant measure of the presence and activities of people than were other more visual clues. Only in the more developed stages of its history, when a mound had formed, would the visual component of a tell have provided a significant contribution. Therefore, as a measure of monumentality, acoustic information may well have been highly significant at different (particularly the early) phases of tell histories.

Bibliography
Andreescu, R. 1999. Vitaneti, com. Purani, jud. Teleorman. Cronica Cercetrilor Arheologice din Romnia. Campania 1998, 130. Bucureti: CIMEC. Andreescu, R. 2000. Vitaneti, com. Purani, jud. Teleorman. Cronica Cercetrilor Arheologice din Romnia. Campania 1999, 113. Bucureti: CIMEC. Andreescu, R. and Mirea, P. 1999. Ceramics. In D.W. Bailey, R. Andreescu and S. Mills (eds), Southern Romania Archaeological Project: preliminary report 1998, 5363. Cardiff: School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University. Andreescu, R. and Mirea, P. 2001. Ceramic analysis and chronological framework. In D.W. Bailey, R. Andreescu, S. Mills and S. Trick (eds), Southern Romania Archaeological Project: second preliminary report, 718. Cardiff: School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University. Bailey, D.W., Andreescu, R. and Mills, S. (eds) 1999. Southern Romania Archaeological Project: preliminary report 1998. Cardiff: School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University. Bailey, D.W., Andreescu, R., Mills, S. and Trick, S. (eds) 2001. Southern Romania Archaeological Project: second preliminary report . Cardiff: School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University. Bailey, D.W., Andreescu, R., Howard, A.J., Macklin, M.G. and Mills, S. 2002. Alluvial landscapes in the temperate Balkan Neolithic: transitions to tells. Antiquity 76, 34955. Bailey, D.W., Howard, A., Macklin, M.G., Andreescu, R. and Mills, S. 2003. Preservation and prospection of alluvial archaeological resources in the southern Balkans: a case study from the Teleorman river valley, southern Romania. In A. Howard, M. Macklin and D. Passmore (eds), Alluvial archaeology in Europe, 23949. Lisse: A.A. Balkema. Blescu, A. 2001. Preliminary archaeozoological study of mammalian fauna. In D.W. Bailey, R. Andreescu, S. Mills and S. Trick (eds), Southern Romania Archaeological Project: second preliminary report, 12841. Cardiff: School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University. Bogaard, A. 2001. Charred plant remains from flotation in 2000. In D.W. Bailey, R. Andreescu, S. Mills and S. Trick (eds), Southern Romania Archaeological Project: second preliminary report, 11327. Cardiff: School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University. Bregman, A. S. 1994. Auditory scene analysis: the perceptual organization of sound. London: MIT Press. Dams, L. 1984. Preliminary findings at the Organ Sanctuary in the cave of Nerja, Malaga, Spain. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 3, 114. Devereux, P. and Jahn, R.G. 1996. Preliminary investigations and cognitive considerations of the acoustical resonances of selected archaeological sites. Antiquity 70, 66566. Ellis, D., Wachowski, A., Wachowski, L. and Rendall, K. 2003. The matrix: reloaded. New York: Warner Brothers. Feld, S. 1996. Waterfalls of song: an acoustemology of place resounding in Bosavi, Papua New Guinea. In S. Feld and

Conclusion
I hope to have conveyed some idea of how sound can add a new layer to our thinking about the Neolithic in southeast Europe. Based on an understanding of the significance of modern-day auditory character areas following three years research in the study area, I concluded that sound was an important component that gave prehistoric individuals/communities an implicit knowledge of their surroundings and the activities of other people and animals. For the Romanian case study, the association of sounds with Neolithic settlement tells is a significant component of understanding their use and location in the landscape; it is an important new way of reconstructing Neolithic life. Furthermore, my research concluded that particular sounds (e.g. those associated with animals) allow previously unavailable understandings of the past.

Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the AHRB for funding my doctoral research; to the directors and team members of the Southern Romania Archaeological Project and to the staff at the Teleorman County Museum for the opportunity to conduct fieldwork in the Teleorman and Clania valleys and for much needed and valued background information; and to my colleagues at the School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University, for their continued support, critical comments and encouragement. I would

Sensing the place: sounds and landscape perception

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