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Music was ubiquitous throughout Mesopotamian history, playing important roles in both religious and secular contexts. Mesopotamia is of particular interest to scholars because evidence from the region—which includes artifacts, artistic depictions, and written records—places it among the earliest well-documented cultures in the history of music.
The Concept of Music in Ancient Mesopotamia. Cuneiform texts, more or less well-preserved real musical instruments, and iconography inform us about the instruments, performers, and compositions in Mesopotamian musical practice.
Mesopotamian art and architecture, the art and architecture of the ancient Mesopotamian civilizations. Notable works include the Standard of Ur, the stela of Naram-Sin, and the stela inscribed with the law code of Hammurabi. Learn more about the history and defining characteristics.
textualize and analyze Conner’s music in ancient Mesopotamian languages and the reconstruction and performance of Mesopo-tamian lyres. The multiple reconstructions of Eastern Mediterra-nean culture discussed here not only provide a setting to test the limits of musical reconstructions, refabrications, and reinventions
Granulation, a sophisticated technique in which tiny granules are attached to a gold base, was practiced by ancient cultures for millennia. In these masterpieces of accomplish-ment, the number of granules can reach hundreds of thousands.
Sumero-Babylonian music, aside from what ob-servations could be made from the pictures of musical instruments, archaeological finds, the many names of instruments not always identi-fiable, and a veritable sea of Sumerian and Akkadian terms relating to choral and instru-mental music. In short, we have been com-
Originally Published in 1998. View PDF. The nearly half million cuneiform tablets excavated from ancient Near Eastern sites provide us with ample evidence for the uses of music in ancient Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria, and among their neighbors in Anatolia, Iran, and Syria-Palestine.
