Session 1 - UET VII 126: String Names and Order of an Unknown Instrument (PowerPoint Presentation)

An Introduction to Ancient Near-Eastern Music
‘Theory’: Understanding Musical Inscriptions
Led by
Dylan Lawrence Gibson
Texts-in-Translation: Reading Group

Educational Ambassador:
Master of Music (Musicology)
B.Mus (Musicology)
BA.Mus (Music Education + Minor in Ancient Culture Studies)
Email: (dgibson@saveancientstudies.org)

Course Outline:
Session 1:
UET VII 126: String Names and Order of an Unknown Instrument
Session 2:
CBS 10996: Numbered Strings ‘Pairs’ / ‘Sets’
Session 3:
UET VII 74: Re-Tuning/Modulation Instructions for the
Sammú (Harp Instrument)

Invited Guest Scholars/Specialists:
Theo Krispijn
Sam Mirelman
John Franklin
Daniel Sánchez Muñoz
Richard Dumbrill
Jerome Colburn
Stefan Hagel

Music Theory and Notation Tablets
(Sketches)
“Archaeo-musicology” = ancient archaeological excavations that inform musicological understanding.
‘3 major’ theory
tablets (left)
Instructional
‘notation’tablet
(right)

The Ancient Near-East
(Mesopotamia)
(Near-East = Eurocentric | Western-Asia = Neutral)

Timeline
(Music tablets excavations)
Related musical texts - Span more than 1000 years.

Prescribed Readings:
Early scholarly contributions, from the 1960s-1980s, that initiated the study of Archaeomusicology (general
introduction to the tablet of interest).
Anne, D. Kilmer (1965).“The Strings of Musical Instruments: Their Names, Numbers, And Significance”,
in Studies in Honor of Benno Landsberger on His Seventy-Fifth Birthday, edited by H. G. Güterbock and
Jacobsen, T. The University of Chicago: pp. 261-272 (focus on heading 4. - pages 264-265).
Available:https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/publications/as/16-studies-honor-benno-landsberger-his-seventy-
fifth-birthday-april-21-1963
Marcelle, Duchesne-Guillemin (1984). A Hurrian Musical Score from Ugarit: The Discovery of
Mesopotamian Music, Sources from the Ancient Near East, 2(2): pp. 5-32 (special focus on pages 5-6 and
heading 2. - pages 9-10). Available: http://urkesh.org/attach/duchesne-
guillermin%201984%20the%20discovery%20of%20mesopotamian%20music.pdf
Optional Readings:
Expands upon previous knowledge, provides alternative perspectives, or adds new ideas.
Richard, Dumbrill (2005). The Archaeomusicology of the Ancient Near East. Cheshire: Trafford Publishing (focus on pages 27-36). Available:
https://www.academia.edu/875113/The_Musicology_and_Organology_of_the_Ancient_Near_East
Elizabeth, E. Payne (2010). “A New Addition to the Musical Corpus”, in Opening the Tablet Box, Near Eastern Studies in Honor of Benjamin R.
Foster, edited by Sarah C. Melville and Alice L. Slotsky. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East: Leiden pp. 291-300. Available:
https://www.academia.edu/2248586/A_New_Addition_to_the_Musical_Corpus
Irving, L. Finkel & Miguel. Civil (1982). The Series SIG7.ALAN = Nabnītu. Materialsfor the Sumerian Lexicon 16. Rome. (focus on pages 23-
29). Available:
https://books.google.co.za/books?id=4tcu6ibq00gC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=nabnitu+lecacon&source=bl&ots=Z4z0FLLhQe&sig=ACfU3U2
gS_i6XG7h033RKGIOIHWVfD0bfA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjKuv7hyqX1AhUiQ_EDHUvYBDwQ6AF6BAgREAM#v=onepage&q=n
abnitu%20lecacon&f=false

Session 1 – Week 1
Thursday 13th January 2022
@ 15:00 (EST)
UET VII 126: String Names and Order of an
Unknown Instrument

Focus:
Relations between tablets

UET VII 126
Field Number: IM - / U. 3011
Cuneiform Sketch:
]:
Lexical Tablet
Excavated at Ur
Neo-Babylonian period
(~ 600-800 BCE)
Nabnītu XXXII
(“creation” text)
(Sketch by Gurney 1973/1974)
UET = Ur Excavation Texts

UET VII 126 + N. 4782
]:
Old-Babylonian period
(~1750 BCE)
(~ 600-800 BCE)
N. = Nippur Collection

Nabnītu
List that names the parts of the body.
Shares a relation to medical texts (‘scientific’names for parts).
Also lists human actions/activities related to the body (singing).
Implies musical instruments as an extension to the human body (values of
honour – using the hands) – no mention of dancing?
*The name of a series of tablets = taken from first line of the first tablet/text.

Nabnītu
Viewed from this perspective, it may be that the music instrument section
does not really break the pattern
Broken sections could mention parts of animals?
Naming parts of a bull headed instrument?

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
(photograph not available)

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
Unique Sumerian column
(Akkadian’s attempt at guessing how the Sumerians approached the same information)

Signs and Words
for “Strings”

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
sa. / (SA?) = “string”,
“sinew” or “tendon”
Sumerian Sign –
Logogram (Sumerogram):
In Sumerian only information =
Sumerograms are written lowercase only (unitalicized)
(Sumerograms interjected into Akkadian text = uppercase)

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
Sumerian Sign –
Logogram (Sumerogram):
sa. = “string”, “sinew”
Akkadian Word
(syllabic):
pi- it- nu
pitnu = “strings”

UET VII 126
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
ATU 1, 331
“Administrative Texts from Uruk”.
Proto-Sumerian
A possible progression

UET VII 126
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
ATU 1, 331
Proto-Sumerian Early Sumerian

UET VII 126
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
ATU 1, 331
Proto-Sumerian Early Sumerian Late Sumerian

UET VII 126
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
ATU 1, 331 + 1, 532 + 1, 491
Possible music related (instrument) pictographs

Numerical Cuneiform
(String Numbers)

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
Try to see if you can guess how the numbers work!

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
Is there anything that bothers you?

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
String 3
String 4
String ?
String 3
String 2?
9 String(s)
String 4
*Music theory tablets made use of a base-10 system and not the expected base-60 we are used to seeing
(easier to see the implied base-10 system on the CBS 10996 tablet when we have 2 numbers)

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
(photograph not available to check)
Sumerian:
String 4
String 4?
Possible mistake
by sketcher
or scribe

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
String 4
String 4?
Possible mistake
by sketcher
or scribe
Confirmed ‘mistake’ (omission)
by sketcher:
è/e-a-[ba-nu-ú]
? ? ?
(also appears on CBS 1766)
(photograph not available to check)

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
String 4?
*Music theory tablets made use of a base-10 system and not the expected base-60

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
String di(1) + 4 = 5
ḫamšu = “five”

“Place Holders”:
Front Strings and their ‘Names’ in Akkadian
We will return to the importance of the string numbers later

UET VII 126
]:
(“rival”)
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
di = “front”,
“first”, or “prime”
String di(1) + 4 = 5

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
di = “front”,
“first”, “prime” or “rival”
qudmúm = “front”,
“first” or “primary”
*lexicon

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
di = “front”,
“first”, “prime” or “rival”
qudmúm = “front”,
“first” or “primary”
*lexicon
uš = “next” or
“second”
šámušum = “next” or
“second”

“Place Holders”:
Back Strings and their ‘Names’ in Akkadian

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
a.ga.gul=“behind/back”
a.ga.gul.šu
= “first behind”, “backmost”
or
“bigger back”

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
a.ga.gul=“behind/back”
úḫrîm = “behind/back”
a.ga.gul.la
= “first behind”, “backmost”
or
“bigger back”
úḫrum= “backmost”
pronounced = “ugh-reem”

UET VII 126
šal-ši
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
úḫrîm = “behind/back”
úḫrum= “backmost”
rebi = “fourth”
šalši = = “third”
šini = = “second”

“Thin” and “Small”
Strings

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
šáalšu qatnu
(“third”) (“thin”)

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
šáalšu qatnu
(“third”) (“thin”)
è/e-a-[ba-nu-ú] =
“Ea (god) string”
tur = “small” ? ? ?
*implying the string was created by
Ea
*The musicological importance of “thin” and “small” strings will be discussed

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
Back Strings
Front Strings
Middle String
9 string in total

UET VII 126
]:
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
Back Strings
Front Strings
Middle String
‘god’ string (small)
9 string in total
thin string
*high-tension front strings
*Ea = patron of arts and music (the “ME”)
Nabnītu sereies “creation” text.

String Numbers and Order
Full Transliteration (Sketch)

UET VII 126
Transliteration Sketch
(Sketch by Friberg 2011)
(Edited by Author 2022)
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
1 front
*Transliteration sketches are in need of updates
(a photograph of this tablet is also difficult to obtain)

UET VII 126
1 front
2 next
Akkadian:
Sumerian:

UET VII 126
1 front
2 next
3 god/small
Akkadian:
Sumerian:

UET VII 126
1 front
2 next
3 god/small
4 thin
Akkadian:
Sumerian:

UET VII 126
1 front
2 next
3 god/small
4 thin
5 middle
Akkadian:
Sumerian:

UET VII 126
1 front
2 next
3 god/small
4 thin
5 middle
4 back
Akkadian:
Sumerian:

UET VII 126
1 front
2 next
3 god/small
4 thin
5 middle
4 back
3 back
Akkadian:
Sumerian:

UET VII 126
1 front
2 next
3 god/small
4 thin
5 middle
4 back
3 back
2 back
Akkadian:
Sumerian:

UET VII 126
1 front
2 next
3 god/small
4 thin
5 middle
4 back
3 back
2 back
1 backmost
(bigger back)
Akkadian:
Sumerian:

UET VII 126
1 front
2 next
3 god/small
4 thin
5 middle
4 back
3 back
2 back
1 backmost
(bigger back) total of 9 strings
Akkadian:
Sumerian:

UET VII 126
Palindromic Numbering System:
1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
1(front)-2(next)-3(thin)-4(Ea/small)-[5]-4(behind)-3(behind)-2(behind)-1(backmost)
No intended instrument
mentioned

Excavated Instruments
from the same Geographical Location (Mesopotamia)

UET VII 126
1 front
2 next
3 god/small
4 thin
5 middle
4 back
3 back
2 back
*Religious significance: Inanna's Bull of Heaven (Epic of Gilgamesh)
*musician/Scribe’s perspective?
1 backmost
Akkadian:
Sumerian:
Front bull-headed feature
Lyre Vs Harp
(Tension Vs Length)

UET VII 126
1 front
2 next
3 god/small
4 thin
5 middle
4 back
3 back
2 back
Ur Lyre
(Reconstruction):
*Strings of the same length
higher string tensions = thinner strings
(Musicological importance)
front
back
middle
1 backmost
Small
Thin
Akkadian:
Sumerian:

UET VII 126
1 front
2 next
3 god/small
4 thin
5 middle
4 back
3 back
2 back
Ur Harp
(Reconstruction):
front
back
middle
*Does not work for the vertical harp
1 backmost
thin
small
Akkadian:
Sumerian:

Depictions of Horizontal and vertical
harps

UET VII 126
1 front
2 next
3 god/small
4 thin
5 middle
4 back
3 back
2 back
Horizontal forearm Harp:
1 backmost
Vertical Harp:
*small string implies harp?
*tablet does not indicate a bull headed feature or prominent front?
Akkadian:
Sumerian:

sammú = harp
instrument?
“Small” string = suggests a harp instrument
UET VII 126
(c. 800 BCE)
UET VII 74
(c. 1800 BCE)
N.4782
(c. 1800 BCE)

Ambiguity
‘Free’ Standing System:
(Both Ascending and Descending = instrument construction)
*The CBS 10996 tablet (the next reading group) dictates the ‘ascending’ or ‘descending’ directions of the terms

Alternative String Numbering
System

YBC 11381
Alternate numbering system
(Sketch by Elizabeth Payne 2010)
(~ 600 BCE)
YBC. =Yale Babylonian Collection

YBC 11381
Translation
*strings associated with gods
(tablets BM 65217 + 66616 follows a similar format)

UET VII 126
Obverse:
Reverse:
*The problem with
the label ‘theory’

Session 1 - UET VII 126: String Names and Order of an Unknown Instrument (PowerPoint Presentation)

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Session 1 - UET VII 126: String Names and Order of an Unknown Instrument (PowerPoint Presentation)