# Archaeoacoustics around the World: A Literature Review (2016-2022)
## 5 Conclusions  
After the review, two main topics were identified: acoustics in archaeological places and acoustics in musical instruments and pieces. The first topic accounted for 89.5% of the articles and was divided into three subtopics: (1) measurements and characterizations at 26.6%, (2) rock art at 10.5%, and (3) simulation, auralization, and virtualization at 52.4%. The topic of musical instruments accounted for 10.5% of the articles. Regarding the measurement and characterization studies, it was found that the articles mostly used the ISO 3382-1:2009 standard related to measuring acoustic parameters in rooms. However, there is currently no standard for open spaces; so, the ISO 3382-1:2009 is often used in these cases. Additionally, it is feasible to identify the best acoustic parameters to characterize open-air archaeological sites, as proposed in [36]. Furthermore, it is essential to determine an adequate number of recording points to achieve accurate measurements in different archaeological sites, as stated in [35]. Additionally, replicas of different archaeological sites should be constructed to test different configurations and obtain multiple acoustic characterizations, as done in [23]. Many investigations in this field also include simulations of the areas being measured. Despite the aforementioned points, the ISO 3382-1:2009 standard has been used in open spaces. This raises the need to develop more specific methodologies for these cases [20; 33; 34; 37], such as theories of sound propagation outdoors [124]. Additionally, it is required to identify other acoustic parameters [36]. In the case of rock art, many authors concluded that the places where the murals were painted had some acoustic behavior. Although, it cannot be proven in all cases that the painters understood acoustics, it seems very likely that they had certain considerations, even sacred, for choosing those sites. Some researchers have used air balloons to obtain the impulse response for measuring these places. In this subtopic, the investigations that used ISO 3382-1:2009 standard were minimal. It would be interesting to acoustically characterize other caves with painted murals to compare them to previous studies [21; 51; 52; 53; 54; 55]. Virtualizing these caves with new technologies could be an interesting approach to recreate the sounds and places. Establishing a methodology for measuring rock art would be desirable to ensure that all investigations meet the same standards. The area related to simulation, auralization, and virtualization is currently growing and developing, mainly due to the advancement of computational capabilities (e.g., CATT-Acoustic, Odeon, Ease, Ramsete, etc. ), which allows more options in the field of simulation and recreation of spaces. On the other hand, for the studies related to rock art and musical instruments, we identified the fewest number of investigations, making these areas an opportunity for further research. The relevance of these types of studies lies in gaining a better understanding of past cultures. Measurements only provide the current acoustic characteristics of the buildings, not the original acoustic characteristics that the buildings had with their original materials. Therefore, using methods such as the impedance tube, as used by [PERSON] [81], to obtain the original materials' acoustic characteristics enables simulations that are closer to the original acoustic characteristics of the buildings, enabling virtual recreation of environments that are as authentic as possible. In this subtopic, the norm ISO 3382-1:2009 is only applicable when the first step is to make measurements of the original place. It would be possible to create 3D models that allow acoustic simulations of different archaeological sites, as proposed in [33; 37]. In archaeological zones, acoustic evaluations could be conducted inside buildings, as seen in [26].