[Aztlan] Raindrop effect at all Mesoamerican pyramids?

[Jorge Pérez de Lara]

Listeros:

Wayne Van Kirk wrote:

> The echo from a hand clap placed on the grass (a few feet from the  
> structure) while facing the steps (and the feathered serpents)  
> produces Two (2) distinct sounds:
>
> 1) Quetzal like chirp from the stairs followed by
>
> 2) A lengthy rattlesnake-like sound (ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz--) reflects  
> off  the columns. The rattlesnake sound starts off loudly then  
> gradually fades as sound is reflected from the columns further away.
>
> Isn't that the sound one might expect from a feathered serpent?
>
>
> WVK

It sure sounds poetically correct, but the point is still that the way  
those structures behaved in terms of the way they would have reacted  
to sounds when the sites were occupied is very difficult to recreate,  
due to the well-known set of variables that we cannot recreate: the  
buildings are now reconstructed and most of the time only partially;  
the originals would have been covered with other materials (stucco,  
paint, etc.), not to mention that structures like the group of the  
1,000 columns would have been roofed over with masonry or thatch or  
other materials we don't know of, all of which would have had an  
effect in the behavior of any sounds reaching them, the plazas where  
the buildings sit would have also been paved and stuccoed, a large  
number of people in those plazas (or not) would have doubtless affected.

I also think that the purported quetzal chirp especially would have  
been a meaningless sound to most Yucatec Maya, as they lived hundreds  
of kilometers away from the closest quetzal habitat and probably never  
saw one alive, let alone do its mating call.

My two cents.

Jorge