The Music in the Stone of Rosslyn
The ceiling of a Scottish chapel is covered with carved cubes, each with a pattern. Two musicians said the patterns were a hidden piece of music.
What was reported
Rosslyn Chapel, near Edinburgh, was begun in 1446 and is crowded with carvings, from green men to angels with bagpipes. It's famous for legends about the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail, which The Da Vinci Code made world-famous.
Among its carvings are 213 small cubes on the arches, each marked with a pattern. In 2005, the composer Stuart Mitchell and his father said the patterns matched the shapes that sound vibrations make in sand on a vibrating plate, and they turned them into a piece of music, the Rosslyn Motet.
Explanations offered
Historians are doubtful: the patterns may just be decoration, and the science of vibration patterns wasn't known until the 1700s. The music is real enough, but whether it's what the carvers meant can't be shown.
- When
- Carved in the 1400s; decoded in 2005
- Where
- Rosslyn Chapel, Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland
- Witnesses
- A father-and-son team of musicians
- Status
- Disputed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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