Many pre-state societies around the world give special importance to places where distinctive
acoustic effects are generated. These places often receive special treatment including the production
of rock paintings in them. In the Western Mediterranean, it seems that outstanding acoustic effects
such as directional echoes, augmented audibility and long reverberation time are present in some rock
art areas with Neolithic depictions made between the 7th and 4th millennia BC. These have been painted
in different styles that have been given the name of Macroschematic, Levantine and Schematic rock
art styles. On the basis of the results of our acoustic tests, we argue that there is a strong probability
of acoustics having been used as a method by Neolithic artists to select the shelters in which to produce
rock art. This paper presents the results of the ongoing ARTSOUNDSCAPES ERC Project on
archaeoacoustics. This project seeks to explore the role of sound in the creation and use of rock art
sites. he authors discuss the results of previous fieldwork in three countries (Spain, France and Italy)
and the development of an innovative set of research methods that include 3D Ambisonic recordings,
GIS soundshed analysis, and Transmission Loss measurements