The Code of the Conch

Three thousand years ago, an expansive ceremonial complex dominated life in the steep Andean valley of Chavín de Huántar, Peru. It was the center of an enigmatic cult where psychotropic plants were used in transformative rituals. Today, a few imposing buildings remain, their mortared-stone faces towering above multi-level terraces and sunken plazas. Stone, bone, and ceramic artifacts have been found at the site, decorated with striking imagery of fierce animals and zoomorphic humans, but no written texts have been discovered that describe the rituals that took place there.

Ancient people are thought to have consulted an oracle at Chavín, yet until recently, few clues pointed to the nature of this oracle. Now, archaeoacoustic research—sonic science applied to archaeological evidence—has revealed secrets built into Chavín’s architecture, unlocked by the sound of conch shells that were buried for millennia.

I have led archaeoacoustics investigations at Chavín since 2008, when my Stanford-based team visited to test the site acoustics and study its spectacular conch shell trumpets, known as pututus. Dr. John Rick, who has directed research at Chavín since the mid-1990s, invited specialists from Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) to focus on testable scientific aspects of Chavín’s sonic story. Our goal was to understand how sound is shaped and transformed by the site’s architecture and instruments, and to document and explore the material remains of Chavín’s ancient sound environment.

The sensory landscape of Chavín matters because there is evidence that cult leaders used it to establish and enhance their religious authority. Over the four years following our initial survey, I returned to the site develop methods and conduct auditory perceptual experiments with volunteer participants, to test how people perceived its unique acoustics. My discovery of a sound-based oracle was as