Record #00440Culture & Entertainment archive
The Hymn to Nikkal (Hurrian Hymn No. 6), dating to around 1400 BCE and excavated at Ugarit in present-day Syria, is among the oldest substantially complete surviving examples of notated music. Its modern musical reconstruction remains debated.
Current Record
about1400BCE
Current record value
The Hurrian cuneiform tablet preserves lyrics and interval and tuning instructions associated with a stringed instrument.
Excavated at Ugarit in the 1950s, the tablet is subject to competing interpretations of its ancient music terminology and modern melody.
Credible sources support core facts; the comparison scope or corroboration remains incomplete.
Basis: direct confirmation by an authority
Scholarly research supports the tablet's dating, notation and relative completeness, while specialist digital-humanities literature explicitly describes its earliest substantially complete status. Interpretation of the musical notation remains disputed, so developing is retained.
Ancient notation admits different interpretations; the reconstructed melody is not definitive.
Current Entry identifies the current entry in this archive; it does not establish that the record is still held today.
The record value on this page is organized from the public sources above. Measurement methods may differ; JiLuDB follows the unified method described for each entry.
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