Major archaeological discovery in Syria: the oldest known song in the world has been identified on a clay table dating about 3,400 years.
The artifact was found in the 1950s in Ugarit, an old port city on the Syrian coast, where archaeologists revealed 29 cuneiform tablets.
Of all the tables discovered, one has been kept almost intact. Called H6 (“Anthem no. 6”), it contains lyrics inscribed in the Hurrian, but written in Babylonian characters. Under the text, the researchers identified what could be a primitive porter – an early representation of the musical notation.
Professor Richard Dumbrill, an archeomuzicologist at Babylon University in Iraq, spent two decades trying to translate the inscriptions. “It was extremely difficult. We could read the Babylonian signs, but the language was Hurrian. It took years to understand that the text hides a song,” he explained.
According to the translation, the song reports the drama of a young woman who cannot have children and who, in an attempt to change her destiny, prays to the goddess of the Moon, nigal, bringing her offers. The text suggests that the anthem had a spiritual and ritual role, being an early example of artistic and religious expression through music.
The discoveries from Ugarit and Mare, another city-state on Euphrate, show that ancient Syria was a musical instrument production center. The kepts kept include letters and receipts from artisans who requested materials for the manufacture of pounds, boxes and other stringed tools. Many of these are considered the ancestors of the modern Arab.
In the region, music was an integral part of social and religious life. The collections kept to this day, such as those in the Debbané Palace in Lebanon, illustrate the continuity of musical traditions in the Near East.
The H6 table is considered the oldest written evidence of music and opens a unique window on how people expressed artistically a few millennia ago. The discovery confirms that music was not only entertainment, but also a form of prayer, cultural identity and collective memory.
The oldest song in the world is not only an archaeological artifact, but a bridge between civilizations – a song that still resonates, 3,400 years after it has been composed.
