Make: Online : 6,500-year-old voices recorded in pottery (just a hoax)

6,500-year-old voices recorded in pottery (just a hoax)

THE RAW FEED has a post about audio that was recorded in pottery - "Belgian researchers have been able to use computer scans of the grooves in 6,500-year-old pottery to extract sounds -- including talking and laughter -- made by the vibrations of the tools used to make the pottery." [via] Link (the site and video is in French). Turns out, it's not true - MAKE reader danman_d says "This site - "Poisson d'avril de journal televise", translates to: "April fools newscast".

Comments

Oldest comments listed first.

Posted by: robertadams1 on February 19, 2006 at 1:09 PM

has anyone independently verified this post? It seems more like an elaborate net.hoax than the real thing. A reference to a scholarly journal would be great...

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Posted by: philliptorrone on February 19, 2006 at 1:13 PM

hey robert, i'm a little skeptical too...i'm hoping this post might get some folks looking in to it.

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Posted by: danman_d on February 19, 2006 at 1:33 PM

No way. This set off my BS detector immediately. And verification:

http://www.bilgesehir.com/c_filmo_principale/e_vases_sonores/Bilge%20Sehir%20-%20Vases%20sonores.htm

This site. "Poisson d'avril de journal televise", translates to: "April fools newscast"

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Posted by: philliptorrone on February 19, 2006 at 1:48 PM

thanks dan! i was in the car on the way back from the airport, nice find!

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Posted by: raincrow on February 19, 2006 at 1:49 PM

Sorry, not a chance this is real. April Fool's.

Not to mention it is ripped off from a short story by Gregory Benford called "Time Shards."

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Posted by: raincrow on February 19, 2006 at 1:52 PM

This was ripped off from Greg Benford's story "Time Shards."

http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook243.htm

Sorry.

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Posted by: travis j icorcoran on February 19, 2006 at 6:01 PM

Wasn't this the plot of a Greg Bear short story 15 or so years back?

I vote "hoax".

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Posted by: travis j icorcoran on February 19, 2006 at 6:10 PM

Wasn't this the plot of a Greg Bear short story 15 or so years back?

I vote "hoax".

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Posted by: ahwoo on February 19, 2006 at 9:14 PM

I remember reading the Sci-Fi story this hoax is based on. While possible in some quantom way. This particular site is a hoax.

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Posted by: aallan on February 20, 2006 at 3:48 AM

It's a hoax, see the comments on my blog post about this,

http://www.babilim.co.uk/blog/2006/02/6500-year-old-voice-recording.html#comments

Pity!

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Posted by: kryten007 on February 20, 2006 at 8:40 AM

There was an X-Files episode about this too. I believe it was the one where some Hollywood people were making a movie about the X-Files. In that story, i think it was a bowl that had recorded Christ resurrecting Lazarus, thus causing the modern dead to rise when it was played back!

As cool of a concept as this is, i can't imagine wet clay would be a good recording medium at all. MAYBE it could work if you had something set up to specifically do this (a phonograph-type contraption), but there is no way ambient noise could cause a potter's tool/hand to vibrate like that.

This would be a GREAT story for the Mythbusters, though! Adam, i know you read Make!

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