Listen: Enchanting 'Oldest Melody' Discovered in Syria

An ancient melody of hymn found in a clay tablet in Syria in 1950 has been reconstructed recently and we can now hear how enchanting its melody is. Known today as Hurrian Hymn -- the melody was inscriberd on the ancient tablet now known as H6. It is the only one of the other 29 tablets found in the ruins of the ancient city of Ugarit, which is now situated in the northern- region of the present day Syria.

Dating almost 3,500 years, Hurrian Hymn even predates the earliest known conception of music notation, which was believed to have been devised in 1000 A.D. Hurrian Hymn is dedicated to goddess named Nikkal, the deity of orchards for the Akkadians. She was also worshiped by the Canaanites, Phoenicians and even Sumerians, according to The New Historian.

Dr. Richard Dumbrill from the University of London confirmed in a Youtube video that the tablets were made during 1,400 BCE and the inscriptions were written by the Akkadians.

The H6 tablet is the only preserved one of the 29 tablets found in Ugarit. The experts reconstructed the melody by distinguishing the writings and notations inscribed on H6. The researchers used Professor Anne Draffkorn Kilmer's interpretation of the hymn created in 1972.

Kilmer discovered that the upper part of the tablet are the lyrics to the hymn, which indicate praises to the goddess Nikkal, while the lower part consist of notations that when played together with the syllables above, somehow matched. These notations are actually instructions on how to play the hymn. H6 specifies 9 lyre strings and the intervals in between them, that pretty much resembles a guitar tab according to Classic FM.

Michael Levy, a musician-composer who is also a research of ancient musical instruments, made his own performance of the Hurrian Hymn. He said that the discovery of the H6 and the earliest written music that even predates language is an expression made to sound, Daily Mail reports.

The tablets are now housed in The National Museum of Damasucus. Listen to the enchanting oldest melody performed by Michael Levy by watching the video below.