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Sound Holes and Geometrical Figures. Clues to the Terminology of Ancient Mesopotamian Harps

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Bo Lawergren  and
O. R. Gurney
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Extract

In general this article concerns harps and lyres in Mesopotamia. We begin by considering sound holes on harps and proceed to inquire into the names of both types of instruments and the geometrical shapes associated with the instruments and sound holes.

On the sides of the vertical harps on the Assyrian Palace reliefs in the British Museum one observes a characteristic geometrical figure inscribed in a consistent manner. The figure resembles a rectangle the sides of which are concave (Plate Xa).

The oldest (653 B.C.) vertical harps shown on these reliefs are played by seven members of King Teumman's Elamite orchestra (S. W. Palace at Nineveh, BM 124802, detail here, Plate Xb). Most of these harps are marked with a pair of concave-sided rectangles. There are six clear marks, five places are too eroded to show distinct marks and three places seem to lack marks. The sculptor's skill and care varies from harp to harp and the workmanship seems generally poor for the instruments where the rectangles are missing.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 49 , 1987 , pp. 37 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1987

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References

1 See e.g., Barnett, R. D., Sculptures from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (668–627 B.C.) (London, 1976)Google Scholar; Rimmer, Joan, Ancient Musical Instruments of Western Asia in the British Museum (London, 1969)Google Scholar; Rashid, Subhi Anwar, Mesopotamien, Musikgeschichte in Bildern (VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig, 1984)Google Scholar.

2 Ziegler, C., Les Instruments de musique égyptiens au Musée du Louvre (Paris, 1979), pp. 104–6Google Scholar.

3 Clear X-shaped marks are seen on four Old Babylonian plaques in the Iraq Museum in Baghdad (IM 41649, IM 41894, IM 42012, IM 21359; Rashid, , Mesopotamien, 80–5Google Scholar) and one in Musée du Louvre (AO 12453) [said to come from Ešnunna, see: Strommenger, E. and Hirmer, M., The Art of Mesopotamia (London, 1964), fig. 143Google Scholar]; all seem to be made from the same mould. A plaque made from a different mould (IM 41590) (Rashid, p. 83) shows indistinct marks; from yet another mould comes a terracotta in Florence [ Furlani, , “Terrecotte babilonesi del R. Museo Archeologico di Firenze”, Aegyptus 12 (1932) 127, fig. 5Google Scholar] which, unfortunately, showed only the lower part of the harp.

4 Lawergren, B., “The Harp of the Ancient Altai People”, Proceedings of the Second Conference of the ICTM-Study Group on Music Archaeology, vol. I, 163–177, ed. Stomberg-Lund, Cajsa (Stockholm, 1986)Google Scholar; also Lawergren, Bo, “The Ancient Harp from Pazyryk, Beiträge zur allgemeinen und vergleichenden Archäologie (1987, forthcoming)Google Scholar.

5 Rudenko, S. I., Frozen Tombs of Siberia (Berkeley, 1970), 293 ffGoogle Scholar.

6 From Iraq Museum (IM 41701, IM 21314, IM 31037) and Musée du Louvre (OA 12455) [Rashid, op. cit., 86–7], all made from the same mould; the harp shown in Legrain, Léon, Terra-cottasfrom Nippur (University of Pennsylvania, 1930), fig. 93, comes from another mouldGoogle Scholar.

7 (a) Nimrud, N. W. Palace (865–860 B.C.) BM 124533, 124535, 124550; (b) Nineveh, Temple of Ishtar (704–681 B.C.) BM 124948; (c) Nineveh, N. Palace (645–635 B.c.) BM 124886.

8 Nineveh, S. W. Palace (653 B.C.) BM 124802; see Mitchell, T. C., “An Assyrian Stringed Instrument”, in Yearbook of the British Museum 4 (London, 1980), 33–42 Google Scholar.

9 Such a system of dual vantage points was used in a scene directly above the Elamite orchestra where houses are drawn in side view while a river is shown from a bird's point of view (Rimmer, op. cit., pl. XIV a).

10 BM 15285, published by Saggs, H. W. F. in RA 54 (1960), 131—46Google Scholar, with a (rather poor) photograph. For a drawing of the part of the tablet containing the geometrical figure it is necessary to refer to the earlier publication of one of the joined fragments by Gadd, C. J. in RA 19 (1922), 149–58Google Scholar.

11 Boeser, P. A. A., Beschreibung der Aegyptischen Sammlung des Niederländischen Reichsmuseums der Altertümer in Leiden (den Haag, 1910), 7, no. 69, and pl. XXII, no. 18CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Hayes, W. C., in The Scepter of Egypt II (Cambridge, 1959), describes the lyre on p. 24 Google Scholar: “It is open at the bottom”.

13 Nos. 69417 and 69418 in the Cairo Museum as described by Hickmann, H. in Instruments de Musique (Le Caire, 1949), fig. XCV A and B, and fig. XCIV BGoogle Scholar. He states “la boîte de résonance est ouverte en bas, sauf au centre”.

14 Livingstone, A., Mystical and Mythological Explanatory Works of Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars (Oxford, 1986), p. 95, line 3Google Scholar. Similarly in the new Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary, ed. A. W. Sjôberg, B (1984), the Sumerian balag is given as “lyre and/or harp” and translated “lyre” throughout.

15 Revue de Musicologie 55 (1969), 10–11 Google Scholar.

16 See Gurney, , Some Aspects of Hittite Religion (1977), 34–35 Google Scholar. ProfessorKilmer, , RIA VI 573 Google Scholar, following Sjöberg, A., OIAS 16, 65 Google Scholar, considers it to be an ear-shaped harp, on the basis of Nabnitu XXV (= L) 177 ( MSL XVI 228 Google Scholar). But as long as the coupling of za-na-ru with za-na in this list (which has nothing to do with musical instruments) remains unexplained (see Sjöberg, loc. cit.), we prefer to rely on the Hittite evidence, for there are few harps on the Hittite monuments and they do not vary in size. We follow Sjöberg in reading the Sumerian giš.INNANA/INNIN rather than giš.mùš.

17 JNES 28 (1969), 109–15Google Scholar.

18 See CAD s.v. alû (a drum), with which al.gar is equated in Hh VIIB 45 and Nabnitu XXXII, col. iii; cf. balag, M. Cohen in ref. 20, below.

19 (1) Gudea Cyl. B, col. x (translated Falkenstein, , Sumerische und Akkadische Hymnen und Gebete [1953], 173–4Google Scholar). (2) Šulgi Hymn B 162–9 (edited by Castellino, G. R., Two Šulgi Hymns [Rome, 1972])Google Scholar. (3) Inanna Hymn of Iddin-Dagan 204–6 (edited by Römer, W. H. P., Sumerische Königshymnen der Isin-Zeit [Leiden, 1965], 128 ff.Google Scholar). (4) Enki's Journey to Nippur 62–7 (edited by A. al-Fouadi [University Microfilms, Ann Arbor 70–7772, 1969]). (5) 3NT 386 (unpublished, line 15 quoted AS 16, (1965), 64, line 14 by al-Fouadi, op. cit. p. 131Google Scholar, transcript now kindly provided by Prof. M. Civil). We deliberately exclude the Curse of Agade, Examenstext A, Šurpu III and ABRT 55, all of which contain such passages, because their date of composition is uncertain, also BBS 35 rev. 2, which is late Babylonian.

20 Gudea is said to have placed a balag (probably an arched harp at this time, cf. Cohen, M., SANE I(2), 31 Google Scholar) alongside an instrument named “Cow Abundance” which from its bovine shape can only have been a lyre, but the common name of this instrument is unfortunately not mentioned in the text (Nanše Hymn 40—4, for which see Heimpel, W., JCS 33 [1981], 84, 103 f.Google Scholar, and Kilmer, RIA VI, 574 a Google Scholar).

21 JNES 29 (1970), 200–1Google Scholar.

22 The reference is to Nabnitu XXXII, now MSL XVI 252 line 11Google Scholar, in a passage listing parts or accessories of the algar, where the Akkadian column is unfortunately lost.

23 See al-Fouadi, op. cit. (n. 19), 131; cf. Cooper, J. S., The Curse of Agade (Baltimore, 1983), 1. 35 Google Scholar. The passage of Nabnitu just mentioned contains a sur-gišal-[gar] which, being an accessory of the instrument, might be thought to support the view that the al-gar-sur-ra was a plectrum; but there is no proof that the two are the same.

24 In her article “Two new lists of key numbers for mathematical operations”, Orientalia 29 (1960), 286 n.1Google Scholar.

25 See Stauder, op. cit., 115.

26 We are indebted to Prof. M. Civil of Chicago for a transcript of the section as now revised.

27 Goetze, A., “A mathematical compendium from Tell Harmal”, Sumer 7 (1951), 137–8Google Scholar.

28 Bruins, E. M. and Rutten, M., Textes mathématiques de Suse, Mémoires de la Mission archéologique en Iran XXXIV (1961) (henceforward MDP 34), text IIIGoogle Scholar.

29 It appears as if somewhere in the transmission a scribe has again conflated two lines:

Original text (see Goetze, , Sumer 7, 137 Google Scholar):

santakkum 26, 15 i-gi-gu-bu-šu

ta-al-li santakki 52,30 i-gi-gu-bu-šu

Corrupted to:

*santakkum 52, 30 i-gi-gu-bu šu

Susa scribe: (new style)

52,30 IGI.GUB ša santakki

30 Thureau-Dangin, F., Textes mathématiques babyloniens (1938), 223 Google Scholar; MDP 34, 20 Google Scholar.

31 Spycket, Agnès, “Louez-le sur la harpe et la lyre”, An. St. 33 (1983), 39–49 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 The correct reading, messētu(m), and the meaning were established by Kilmer, in Studies presented to A. Leo Oppenheim (1964), 142 n.9Google Scholar.

33 So Kilmer, loc. cit., and the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, 10, part II (1977).

34 Kilmer, op. cit. 140 line 10, and Saggs, op. cit. (n.1), passim (with PAD.TA.ÀM). This T]A.ÀM suggested to Bruins a progression of 5 lengths (4 sides and 1 diagonal) increasing in steps of 5 (the messētu). But this would be a different use of messētu from that which he established on p. 46 (“distance between sides”).

35 RA 31 (1934), 61–9Google Scholar. In the text there edited (a new edition was included in his Textes mathématiques babyloniens (1938), 74—6Google Scholar) the parallel sides are called pūtum elîtum and pūtum šaplîtum, “upper and lower front”, the oblique sides šiddum elûm and šiddum šaplûm.

36 In order to make the root give the desired result 1,23;20 as given by Bruins; then x = −1, 10; + 1,23;20 = 13;20 as required in Bruins' restoration.

37 It must be mentioned that no coefficient for the šiddu of the apsamikku is given in the list and in Goetze's figure (Fig. 2 b here) the long side, which should be the šiddu, is not 60 but 1,05;20 (= 65⅓ decimal); there is no other dimension which could be considered to be the šiddu. Does this indicate a flaw in the argument or only that the proportions of the figure could vary slightly?

38 A possible explanation would be that the original text had only ap-ta (or better ap-tu) in the sense “(window) frame” posited by Goetze (see above), and the preceding U (“hole”) and the equation ha-si-si were added by a scribe who misunderstood the meaning. Hunger's reading aš-šu-u would be unparalleled and is unlikely to be correct.

39 For example, Rimmer, op. cit. pl. IX.

40 KAR 307 obv. 3, cited in the CAD s.v. sammû 119b and now translated by A. Livingstone, op. cit., 94, “his hand is a harp”. The dictionary also cites a similar passage from an omen text: “If he has sammû-shaped hands.”

41 For a compendious account of these texts see Kilmer, A. “The discovery of an ancient Mesopotamian theory of music”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 115 (1971), 131–49Google Scholar.

42 Bo Lawergren and Eric de Waele, Elamite musical instruments at Kul-e Farah, (to be published).