Assessing the Acoustics of an Ancient Egyptian temple

Numerous studies have been dedicated to the rich ancient Egyptian architectural heritage, especially to places of worship. Such studies generally focus on the visual, geometrical or light dimensions. However, anthropological works from Visual and Sound studies emphasize the importance of multisensorial strategies that are used to communicate with the divine. Hence, it appears important to investigate the role of sound within such worship spaces. For the first time, such a study is being conducted on the acoustical properties of an Egyptian temple. Situated in Upper Egypt and dated back to the 1st century BCE – 1st century CE, the main temple of Dendara complex is dedicated to Hathor, the goddess of music, love and joy. Epigraphic and iconographic studies testify the importance of sound activities in the temple through numerous mural textual allusions and representations of deities, dancers or musicians singing or playing instruments to venerate Hathor. No text has ever been found about any acoustical considerations that could have governed the design of such monuments. However, the edifice presents remarkable acoustical properties, either planned or empirically derived from geometrical or structural considerations. The quality of silence or the presence of environmental sounds experienced in the various volumes of the temple, as well as the reverberation or resonances of the different chapels or rooms were undoubtfully perceived during daily activities or during celebrations and processions. In order to characterize these properties, an acoustic measurement campaign has been conducted, using a spherical microphone array and exploiting recent advancements in the necessary post-processing of the collected directional room impulse responses (DRIR). This campaign also serves as a first step towards auralization of the 3D numerical model of the temple.