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Indus Musicians in Mesopotamia
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Human is a musical creature. It is seen ubiquitously through times and spaces that a certain percentage of human population is always musically inclined irrespective of their profession. Music is also an integral part of many social activities humans observe like religious practices, marriages, deaths and what more. Due to the possible presence of Harappan population in Mesopotamia, it may be surmised that a number of Harappan musicians and some of their musical instruments could also have reached there. In this investigation, crucial help could also come from the fact that many a times, names of musical instruments travel with them.On account of a very likely possibility of such an occurrence, a study of archaeological and Sumerian textual records in Mesopotamia was strongly suggestive of a significant presence of Harappan musicians and musical instruments in Mesopotamia. In fact, study of Sumerian text has shown that about 30 musical terminologies out of a total of nearly 60, in the categories such as names of instruments, singers, names of tunes/songs and even musical notations etc. in Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary are found to be both phonetically and semantically very similar to ancient Indian terms with some “Sumerianization”. The study also demonstrated certain patterns in the way words were sumerianized, suggesting the possibility of active human involvement in the process. The translators or interpreters of Meluhhan language are well known to be present in Mesopotamia through archaeological records. To verify the data, other words were studied based on the patterns obtained from musical terminologies from the areas that are related to Harappan presence in Mesopotamia; which yielded many more positive results. In fact, a total of 90 such words are found till now, which are reported here.Furthermore, the study of iconography in Mesopotamian archaeological records has also shown very compelling parallels in musical traditions. Importantly, it predicted a possibility of a Harappan lyre, shaped realistically like a bull, that may have travelled from Indus to Mesopotamia and evolved there in local styles in the forms as found in the Royal Cemetery of Ur.
Title: Indus Musicians in Mesopotamia
Description:
Human is a musical creature.
It is seen ubiquitously through times and spaces that a certain percentage of human population is always musically inclined irrespective of their profession.
Music is also an integral part of many social activities humans observe like religious practices, marriages, deaths and what more.
Due to the possible presence of Harappan population in Mesopotamia, it may be surmised that a number of Harappan musicians and some of their musical instruments could also have reached there.
In this investigation, crucial help could also come from the fact that many a times, names of musical instruments travel with them.
On account of a very likely possibility of such an occurrence, a study of archaeological and Sumerian textual records in Mesopotamia was strongly suggestive of a significant presence of Harappan musicians and musical instruments in Mesopotamia.
In fact, study of Sumerian text has shown that about 30 musical terminologies out of a total of nearly 60, in the categories such as names of instruments, singers, names of tunes/songs and even musical notations etc.
in Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary are found to be both phonetically and semantically very similar to ancient Indian terms with some “Sumerianization”.
The study also demonstrated certain patterns in the way words were sumerianized, suggesting the possibility of active human involvement in the process.
The translators or interpreters of Meluhhan language are well known to be present in Mesopotamia through archaeological records.
To verify the data, other words were studied based on the patterns obtained from musical terminologies from the areas that are related to Harappan presence in Mesopotamia; which yielded many more positive results.
In fact, a total of 90 such words are found till now, which are reported here.
Furthermore, the study of iconography in Mesopotamian archaeological records has also shown very compelling parallels in musical traditions.
Importantly, it predicted a possibility of a Harappan lyre, shaped realistically like a bull, that may have travelled from Indus to Mesopotamia and evolved there in local styles in the forms as found in the Royal Cemetery of Ur.
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