Test Tone in Acheiropoietos

In 2014, an international team of scholars measured the acoustical properties of eight churches in Thessaloniki. The recordings are part of an article in Hesperia that examines two of the tested churches, the Acheiropoietos basilica and the cathedral of Hagia Sophia in order to provide objective and phenomenological accounts of how sound — both chanted and spoken — was produced and received. Framing the soundscape of each church through an examination of its original shape, furnishings, decoration, liturgy, music, and acoustics raises new questions about ties between the two buildings and the streets that connected them. This study deepens the understanding of the archaeoacoustics of Thessaloniki’s early churches.