The EPIC OF GILGAMESH is the earliest great work of literature that we know of, and was first written down by the Sumerians around 2100 B.C.
Ancient Sumer was the land that lay between the two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, in Mesopotamia. The language that the Sumerians spoke was unrelated to the Semitic languages of their neighbors the Akkadians and Babylonians, and it was written in a syllabary (a kind of alphabet) called “cuneiform“. By 2000 B.C., the language of Sumer had almost completely died out and was used only by scholars (like Latin is today). No one knows how it was pronounced because it has not been heard in 4000 years.
What you hear in this video are a few of the opening lines of part of the epic poem, accompanied only by a long-neck, three-string, Sumerian lute known as a “gish-gu-di“. The instrument is tuned to G - G - D, and although it is similar to other long neck lutes still in use today (the tar, the setar, the saz, etc.) the modern instruments are low tension and strung with fine steel wire. The ancient long neck lutes (such as the Egyptian “nefer“) were strung with gut and behaved slightly differently. The short-neck lute known as the “oud“ is strung with gut/nylon, and its sound has much in common with the ancient long-neck lute although the oud is not a fretted instrument and its strings are much shorter (about 25 inches or 63 cm) as compared to 32 inches (82 cm) on a long-neck instrument.
For anyone interested in these lutes, I highly recommend THE ARCHAEOMUSICOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST by Professor Richard Dumbrill.
The location for this performance is the courtyard of Nebuchadnezzar’s palace in Babylon. The piece is four minutes long and is intended only as a taste of what the music of ancient Sumer might have sounded like.
1 view
248
92
5 months ago 00:00:58 1
😺 Funny dogs and cats! #cats #коты #funny #animals #dog
5 months ago 00:00:51 1
Bougainville Bamboo Band Performs ’Final Countdown’ #bambooband
5 months ago 00:02:20 1
Interview with the Vampire Season 2 Official Trailer | Premieres May 12 | AMC+
5 months ago 00:02:10 1
33 Immortals - Gameplay Trailer (ESRB)
5 months ago 01:15:22 1
Ivan Torrent - Immortalys (Full Album Epic Music )
5 months ago 00:04:51 1
Rammstein - Radio (Official Video)
5 months ago 03:00:01 1
Dune | Epic Music & Ambience
5 months ago 03:00:01 1
🍃 Lord of the Rings ~ Chill Lofi Mix with Chill Astronaut 👨🚀
5 months ago 03:00:11 1
Legend of Zelda | Peaceful and Epic Orchestrated Music Mix with 4 Beautiful Daytime Scenes, 3 Hours
5 months ago 00:00:36 1
Evanescence - What You Want | guitar cover #shorts
5 months ago 02:00:18 1
AVATAR Full Movie 2024: Pandora World | Superhero FXL Action Movies 2024 in English (Game Movie)
5 months ago 00:05:03 1
5 Min Full Body Warm Up with Caroline Girvan
5 months ago 00:36:28 1
30 Min FULL BODY DUMBBELL WORKOUT at Home | Muscle Building
5 months ago 00:02:18 1
Epic Leopard Hunt in Night Vision | 4KUHD | Mammals | BBC Earth
5 months ago 00:02:57 1
“Jinwoo Vs Igris x knights“⚔️☢️“AMV“ [Tell Me That I Can’t]
5 months ago 00:07:15 1
YOUR NEW GOTO EQ SETTING | How To Clean Up A Muddy Mix
5 months ago 00:00:10 1
Cricket Movies
5 months ago 00:02:39 1
MVKM - Comets
5 months ago 00:02:16 1
KINGMAKERS Trailer 4K (New Medieval Time Travel War Game 2024)
5 months ago 00:03:20 1
Waka Waka - SHAKIRA - Super Energetic Dance Choreo
5 months ago 00:03:11 1
Epic Cinematic Gaming Cyberpunk by Alex Productions ( No Copyright Music) | FREE DOWNLOAD | RESET |