Step 3 of 7

Echoes

To already learn something about the content of this tablet, we turn the tablet on its back. The sides are not inscribed, but the reverse of the tablet is written in two different orientations and we should flip it along the horizontal axis to read the colophon. This does not only give us information on the content of the tablet, but also reveals the scribe who noted it down:

These are the songs of Nid-qabli​, hymns of the gods, from (the collection of the musician) Urhiya, by the hand of Ammurapi (the copyist).See Kilmer, A. D., ‘The Discovery of an Ancient Mesopotamian Theory of Music,’ Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 115 no. 2 (1971), 131-149.

The song of nid-qabli. Time to have a listen...