To practice music archaeology is to enter into a dialogue between the humanities and the sciences, social and otherwise. Music archaeology is part of the humanistic study of past sounded behaviour, ritual practice, and soundscapes, as well as a global history of discursive representations about humans' capacity for music. It is also the scientific inquiry of sound technology through time, of materials and provenience, dateable stratified contexts anchoring developments in technique and skill to past places of manufacture and interpretation in time. The material cultures of ancient Latin America, in their breadth and depth of musical and sounding materials, present ideal conditions for the exploration of past sound practises at multiple scales. This article provides a brief orientation to the broad theoretical underpinnings and most widely utilised methods of music archaeological research as practised in Latin America. Through the lens of ancient Latin American societies, we argue that music archaeology provides a template for truly interdisciplinary research that operates at multiple scales, from the practises of individuals to larger societal interactions.

实践音乐考古学就是进入人文与科学、社会与其他领域之间的对话。音乐考古学是对过去的声音行为、仪式实践和音景的人文研究的一部分，也是关于人类音乐能力的话语表征的全球历史的一部分。它也是对随着时间的推移而出现的可靠技术、材料和出处、可追溯的分层背景的科学探究，这些背景将技术和技能的发展锚定到过去的制造和解释地点。古代拉丁美洲的物质文化，在音乐和发声材料的广度和深度上，为多尺度探索过去的声音实践提供了理想的条件。本文简要介绍了拉丁美洲音乐考古研究的广泛理论基础和最广泛使用的方法。通过古代拉丁美洲社会的视角，我们认为音乐考古学为真正的跨学科研究提供了一个模板，该研究在多个尺度上进行，从个人的实践到更大的社会互动。