[Aztlan] Raindrop effect at all Mesoamerican pyramids?

[Wayne Van Kirk]

Wouldn't it be quite a coincident that  feathered serpent sound is only 
the result of ruined condition? What are the odds?

I would expect that a masonry roof (plastered ceiling) over the group of the  
1,000 columns would produce an significantly enhanced rattlesnake effect.
Perhaps acting like an acoustic  waveguide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waveguide_%28acoustics%29
Another acoustic waveguide can be found in neighborhood in the form of
the high walls in the Great Ball Court. 

Yucatec Maya  would be familiar with the quetzal chirp because it's 
encoded into the steps of the pyramid. Like an ancient recording.

>From David Lubman's website:
You will hear two
                    Quetzal bird chirps (recorded in a rain forest) followed
				    by two chirped echoes stimulated by a handclaps at the pyramid (recorded by me in January
				    1998). We must not expect the sounds to be identical.  Just recognizably similar.
				    Think of a scratchy old Caruso recording. We can still recognize the voice of the great
				    Caruso, even if it does not sound perfect. Remember that the Mayan stone recording is many
				    times older than the Caruso recording!

WVK

--- On Sat, 10/17/09, Jorge Pérez de Lara  wrote:

From: Jorge Pérez de Lara 
Subject: Re: [Aztlan] Raindrop effect at all Mesoamerican pyramids?
To: "Aztlan" 
Date: Saturday, October 17, 2009, 3:36 PM

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
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