What Do We Know About the Oldest Surviving Song in History?

Source

What Do We Know About the Oldest Surviving Song in History?

---

I want to point out early on that there's no recording of the original version of this song. As obvious as it seems, I don't want to confuse anyone. The examples in this post are artist recreations of what they think it could have sounded like. Thus, some created using MIDI. I talked briefly about this in my previous article Midi and Life: What Does It Mean to Be Locked-In? and Do We All Act the Same? If there's a striking contrast between natural and digital, this is a good example of natural.

---

Song Origins

---

Basically, in 1400 BC (or more than 3,400 years ago!) a composer wrote a piece in Ugarit, Ancient Syria. The piece is a hymn to praise the wife of the moon god, her name was Nikkal.

Source

Ugarit was discovered by a peasant farmer in 1928. Under control from many different civilizations throughout history, Ugarit thrived most between 1450 BCE and 1200 BCE. Much information of which was found in a library containing cuneiform tablets with political, cultural, economic, and social information about Ugarit. It's also noted that Ugarit's discovery helped rewrite the bible. About 5000 stone clay tablets had information written in a language similar to hebrew with several stories. To learn more about where Ugarit was and what it was like check out https://www.britannica.com/place/Ugarit

Cuneiform

---

Cuneiform is a writing system that was invented between 3500 and 3000 BCE by Sumerians. Sumer is the oldest known civilization from anciant mesopotamia. This goes way back guys.

Here's a sample of what it looks like. I bet you've seen it in a museum somewhere in teh world.

Source

Who is Nikkal?

---

Nikkal is the Phonecian Goddess of fruits and fertility. Her husband is the moon god, Yarikh. Every night he lets dew fall to water Nikkal's trees so that they grow. Other names are Nikkal-wa-Ib meaning Great Lady and Fruitful. The Sumerian equivalent of Yarikh is Nanna. Her equivalent of Nikkal is Ningal. Source

Source

The Song

---

The song is written in an ancient language called Hurrian. Hurrian songs were often collected on tablets inscribed in cuneiform from Ugarit. The oldest of which is this one. This specific tablet wasn't found until the 1950's. It wasn't deciphered until 1970's by Anne Kilmer, a Berkeley professor. She already had an Ancient Babylonian tablet describing how to tune an ancient lyre, so some of the information was able to be translated. She found the song was written in a 7 note scale system. It sounds strikingly modal to me. She reconstructed the song note-for-note to be able to have the lost tune be heard by everyone.

There are many popular versions of Hymn to Nikkal.

Here are three examples of what we might have heard it like 3400 years ago.

---

---

Lyrics and Text

---

Source

"I will (bring x?) in the form of lead at the right foot (of the divine throne)
I will (purify ?) and change (the sinfulness).
Once sins are) no longer covered and need no longer be changed,
I feel well having accomplished the sacrifice.

(Once I have) endeared (the deity), she will love me in her heart,
the offer I bring may wholly cover my sin
bringing sesame oil3 may work on my behalf
in awe may I ...

The sterile may they make fertile,
Grain may they bring forth.
She, the wife, will bear (children) to the father.
May she who has not yet borne children bear them."
Source

Who would know one of the most important cities of Ancient times would be discovered by accident by a Syrian farmer?

Steemians, please let me know what you think of the post in the comments below.