The first day, at the rock-carving site Madsebakke, was devoted to lurs. No fewer than five bronze lurs were in use, alongside other metal lurs and lurs made of wood. I myself brought a couple of my short lurs, which in Norway have traditionally been called ‘stuttlurer’ or ‘bjønnatuter’.

We investigated, among other things, different playing techniques, acoustic reflections in the landscape and vegetation, and the ritual use of the instruments—including the effect of dissonance and interference.

The second day focused on the human voice, at Rispebjerg—an archaeological area with ancient remains from the Stone Age and Iron Age. One of the themes we explored was Tacitus’ description of the Germanic peoples’ use of shields as voice amplifiers; another was ceramic jars used as voice maskers.

In addition, I was part of a small group that tested mouth bows, based on a Danish Mesolithic find from Mullerup (ca. 9000 BP). It is a quiet instrument and was probably not meant to entertain many listeners. It sounds better inwardly in the body of the person playing—like a meditative overtone instrument.

On the last day we were in Ekkodalen (the Echo Valley) in the middle of the island—one of the biggest tourist attractions, both because of the cliff faces that answer back and the beautiful scenery. We held a successful sound walk open to the public, with different stations along the trail in the valley. I also took part in acoustic measurements together with my colleague Julia Shpinitskaya.

Thanks to Eva Fock in Ears Wide Open for a wonderful initiative!

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For a long time it has been a dream to come to Novgorod, ever since I in the 1990s first heard about the magnificent finds of musical instruments from the excavations there and the work of Vladimir Povetkin (1943–2010). He was a pioneer as an instrument builder, performer and researcher. He used a kind of experimental archaeology in his work to recreate the sound and music of the instruments of the black earth of Novgorod.

In 1990 Povetkin founded The Novgorod Center for Music Antiquities (http://centrpovetkina.ru). Here his reconstructed instruments are exhibited and used in research as well as popular lectures of Novgorod’s early music and Russian traditional folk culture.

The material in the excavations dates from the period from the 10th to the 15th century. Objects of wood are often surprisingly well preserved, thanks to good preservation conditions in marshy, oxygen-poor soils. Among the many instrument finds, there are several discoveries of gudoks, which are among the earliest bowed instruments we know of in Europe (see photo). The parallel in Western Europe is the rebec. Novgorod also has several important finds of the the string instrument gusli, which is the relative of the Finnish and Baltic kantele, kankle, or kokle. A five-string gusli from the 11th century has the inscription “slovisha”, which may have either referred the instrument itself or, alternatively, to the owner of the instrument.

The inscription has thus given the name of the festival, which is built around the finds in Novgorod, in combination with folk music from Novgorod and the surrounding areas, from different sides of modern national borders. Historically, there were many connections from Novgorod to Scandinavia, and in the Viking Age the city was known as Holmgard. Later, Novgorod became part of the Hanseatic trade. You can read more about Novgorod’s interesting history on this website: https://visitnovgorod.com/novgorod/discover_novgorod/The_birthplace_of_Russia.html

Slovisha was a very interesting and rewarding festival. It had a good mix of lectures and musical performances, and a nice geographical balance, with a focus on the area historically belonging to the Novgorod region. It provided an opportunity for exciting explorations of similarities and differences in the folk traditions. Furthermore, cultural and scientific exchange is in itself a good thing. Meetings crossing modern political borders, like this, are more important than ever.

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Among the instruments I have made is the lyre depicted at the well known stave church portal from Hylestad, Setesdal. At the original portal, from round 1200 AD (displayed at the Museum of Cultural History, Oslo), the instrument is equipped with about twelve strings. We do not know if the artist really had an instrument with twelve strings as a model, or if this was a choice made by artistic reasons. Neither do we know how the instrument was constructed, and the material of the strings.

However, the two reconstructions I have finished now are made from my own artistic freedom, in combination with knowledge of lyres from other places and periods. These two lyres are stringed with, respectively, steel and nylon. Sound and music samples will follow soon, with more information on my experimental project of reconstructing lyres found in depictions on artefacts from Southern Norway, ca. 1100–1400 AD.

Another lyre, which has been shown to belong to a later, post-medieval period, was found at the farm Kravik in Numedal. Unlike the portal from Hylestad and the other iconographies, this is a real instrument, preserved the farm until it arrived at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo in the 19th century. The lyre was partly broken, and the sound board was not preserved at all. The original number of strings is estimated to seven. 

Two of the images show my reconstruction of the lyre from Kravik. I used metal strings.

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At the conference I presented my interpretations along with my own reconstruction of the megaphone, based on the drawings in the publication by Shetelig and Johannessen from 1929. Below some photos from the work with the reconstruction. If anyone has any information on megaphones or sound communication at sea, I would be delighted to be informed. First, here is the abstract for my paper:

Sound communication in non-reverberating acoustical spaces

Acoustic spaces or sound spaces are natural or man-made structures used for sound, or with sound as an integral part of religious ceremonies, gatherings or feasts. As shown in an increasing number of archaeoacoustic studies, some of these designated spaces, such as caves, megaliths – and later – theatres, churches, halls and other man-made structures, are used or constructed specifically because of their acoustic properties.

However, in many situations and places, people could neither make benefit from architectural structures nor natural spaces for acoustic communication. Some natural environments are especially unsuitable or demanding for communication purposes, with few hard surfaces that naturally reverberates and amplifies sound waves. People have therefore made use of certain techniques or specially designed contrivances of for communication purposes. One such place is at sea or in costal landscapes where the ocean and/or wind is the «keynote sound» of the soundscape.

In a ship excavated in Kvalsund, Sunnmøre, on the west coast of Norway, the archaeologists found a wooden funnel-shaped 72,5 centimetre long object, interpreted as a megaphone. The ship, which probably was a seagoing vessel, was dated to the 7th to 8th century AD. Based on reconstructions and experiments, this paper will discuss the acoustical function of the possible megaphone. It will also discuss other methods of communication at sea – with sound producing devices, or with other means, such as the whistling language used in whale hunting by the Siberian Yupik people, south of the Bering strait.

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