Music Archeology

En El Salvador, el trabajo en materia musical prehispánica es mínimo, lo cual planteó la necesidad de hacer un primer análisis organológico enmarcado en las principales corrientes teórico-metodológicas contemporáneas.

El presente trabajo representa un primer paso; que manifiesta la necesidad de utilizar nuevos parámetros clasificatorios, propone el uso de nuevos métodos de análisis y revela la diversidad de artefactos sonoros de una sociedad de la Zona Oriente de El Salvador, que habitó durante el Período Clásico Tardío el sitio arqueológico Asanyamba.

Soliyo is widely performed by jelis across a vast geographical area, from Gambia in the West to Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire in the east. This broad diffusion of the song and the consistency of its features, language, and social function, suggests that it is very old indeed. Its special features include: emphasis on horses, their might and their metaphorical power;  the mention of the name Silamakanba Koita, in connection with horses; it is ideally performed acapella and is in free rhythm.
The song is archaic, and unique, but also ubiquitous. No one except a jeli may sing it. It is fundamental to the expression of jeli culture, and yet, little has been written about it. At worst, the song is formulaic and
predictable; at best, it is an exhilarating vocal tour de force, technically demanding, This chapter is an ethnography of this archaic song and explores its connections with Sorotomo (a 13th century archeological site near Segou in central Mali), a kingdom who might was based on horses.

This paper introduces a bird bone fragment, decorated with lineal incisions. This ítem, found in the course of the archaeological works developed in the Güelga Cave (Asturias), belongs to de Early Magdalenian period. The paralells
point out that this kind of decoration recurs in the Cantabrian Región along this Palaeolithic phase, so it could be a characteristic artwork at this time. The Identification of the item as a flute fragment allows us make some reflections about Palaeolithic musical Instruments.

Presentamos un tubo de hueso largo de ave, decorado con series de incisiones lineales. Esta pieza pertenece al Magdaleniense inferior de la Cueva de la Güelga. Los paralelos indican que este tema es repetitivo en esa fase paleolítica en el Cantábrico, por lo que pudiera constituir un motivo característico. Su interpretación como flauta nos permite una serie de reflexiones sobre los instrumentos musicales paleolíticos en general y sobre este tipo de piezas en particular.

This article consists of an interpretation of the iconography of the rectangular cithara, as represented in the Apulian vase-painting from the 4th cent. B.C. It focuses, as an interpretation key, on the space representation, classifying it in four possibilities: domestic space, transitional space, outdoor space and vague space. We analyze the meaning of this instrument concerning love, specifically its gender role as a male instrument in the Apulian erotic context.

It is shown that the Mediterranean heroes who can banish demons or wild animals with music —Aqhat in Ugarit, David in Judah or Orpheus in Thrace— are inspired by the much older Kurgarru in Mesopotamia. During the transmission of the motive in Syria and the Levant, the lute is replaced by a lyre. However, iconic constancy is given by the crouching or sitting posture of the musician, his orientation to the right, the playing of a stringed instrument and the audience of a dog.

Cyprus is an Eastern Mediterranean island with a very distinct historical trajectory between insularity and connectivity, self-sufficiency and cosmopolitanism, continuity and change. Τoward the end of the second millennium BC, Cyprus seems to have suffered less from the crisis that swept most other regions in the Eastern Mediterranean. Thus, the island retained its centrality in sea-routes and cultural exchange networks, particularly with the West, as well as a high degree of continuity in institutions, economy and religion. Cypriot musical culture also remained prosperous; coroplastic products dating to the Early Iron Age, in particular, provide rare insights into an early horizon of musical activity in a period when other Mediterranean cultures were experiencing a “Dark Age”, or the initial recovery from it.

The present paper provides an overview of Cypro-Geometric and Cypro-Archaic coroplastic (and other) representations of musical performance, exploring the different types of musicians, musical instruments, playing techniques and contexts of music making. A special focus is placed on the continuities and discontinuities from the Bronze Age, the connections to the contemporary East and West, and the intertwining of musical practices with war, the human body and the supernatural. Overall, Cypriot musical practices are placed in the wider context of strategies for the construction of social identities and the legitimation of political authority in the formative period of the historic kingdoms of Cyprus.

This paper explores the potential of acoustics to interpret the prehistoric rock art of southern Andalusia (Spain). Tests undertaken in two areas, north of the Celemín river and the Bacinete area, will form the basis of our discussion. The results obtained at a selection of rock art sites show that the two key rock art sites, El Tajo de las Figuras and the large shelter at Bacinete, both with the majority of paintings in the earlier Laguna de la Janda style, had good resonance values. In contrast, at most of the other minor sites tested, the values for resonance were negative or insignificant, regardless of whether they were painted in Laguna de la Janda or schematic style. We conclude that the major rock art sites in southern Andalusia were chosen not only for their geological appearance and location in the landscape, but also for their acoustic properties.

Il processo di creazione di nuova conoscenza in ambito umanistico è inserito in un sistema circolare virtuoso che si autoalimenta. Tale sistema comprende la divulgazione, la disseminazione e il processo di tutela e valorizzazione. A questo è unito il sistema del feedback che alimenta sia il sistema e i vari step, sia la fase della ricerca.

The Moche inhabited the north coast of Peru during the Andean Early Intermediate Period (0 - 700 CE). One of the most distinctive features of Moche ritual pottery is the depiction of highly ranked individuals usually described as priests, warriors, deities, and supernatural beings. They are mainly present upon Middle Moche period vessels (100 – 400 CE), which were probably produced in the context of deep social and political transformation. Supposedly, this was a time marked by the rise in social standing of some of the southern Moche valley’s elites. It was precisely during this period that a large number of musicians, playing a great variety of sound instruments, were recurrently depicted in artifacts such as figurines, whistles, stirrup spout bottles and jars. Interestingly, in many cases, they appear carrying similar attributes of high status individuals or garments of important supernatural beings. The similarity of the attributes carried by musicians and empowered individuals are easily recognized in the iconography of the ceramic archaeological vessels or in funerary contexts.
Detailed iconographic analysis shows us that the musicians are present in most of the important ritual and political thematic scenes of the Moche iconography. They seem to maintain a very close relationship with the protagonists of the Moche world’s visual narratives, such as the Presentation Theme, the Bicephalus Arch Theme, the Burial Theme, and others. The focus of this presentation is depictions of musicians who play panpipes, drums and rattles: these images are compared with high-ranking characters depicted in Moche art, in order to identify the instrument players’ respective social roles in Moche society.

Daniela La Chioma Silvestre Villalva is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Archaeology of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo, Brazil. She holds a graduation in History (2007) and a Master’s in Archaeology (2012) from the University of São Paulo, both degrees in Pre-Columbian studies, with a specialization in Andean art and archaeology. Her research focuses on iconographic representations of sound, music, and its players in Andean Art; emphasizing their social, political, and religious roles and the symbolic meaning of the instruments in Andean and Amerindian cosmovisions. One of her iconographic analyses of Nasca musicians became a chapter in Matthias Stöckli & Arnd Adje Both, Flower World: Music Archaeology of the Americas, II (Berlin, 2013). In her Ph.D. research she is currently studying the political-religious roles of musicians in the northern coast of Peru, specifically in the Middle Moche period, based on a databank of more than 800 images of musicians, all depicted in Moche pottery. She has been doing fieldwork in Peruvian archaeological projects and studies of Peruvian museum’s collections since 2007, as well as participating in seminars and conferences in Brazil, Europe, and Peru.
E-mail: danilachioma@gmail.com

http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/fineart/events/archeomusicology.htm

https://www.facebook.com/conferenceonarcheomusicology?fref=ts

Presentamos un tubo de hueso largo de ave, decorado con series de incisiones lineales. Esta pieza pertenece al Magdaleniense inferior de la Cueva de la Güelga. Los paralelos indican que este tema es repetitivo en esa fase paleolítica en el Cantábrico, por lo que pudiera constituir un motivo característico. Su interpretación como flauta nos permite una serie de reflexiones sobre los instrumentos musicales paleolíticos en general y sobre este tipo de piezas en particular.This paper introduces a bird bone fragment, decorated with lineal incisions. This ítem, found in the course of the archaeological works developed in the Güelga Cave (Asturias), belongs to de Early Magdalenian period. The paralells point out that this kind of decoration recurs in the Cantabrian Región along this Palaeolithic phase, so it could be a characteristic artwork at this time. The Identification of the item as a flute fragment allows us make some reflections about Palaeolithic musical Instruments.

Numerous studies have been dedicated to the rich
ancient Egyptian architectural heritage, especially to places of
worship. Such studies generally focus on the visual, geometrical
or light dimensions. However, anthropological works from
Visual and Sound studies emphasize the importance of
multisensorial strategies that are used to communicate with the
divine. Hence, it appears important to investigate the role of
sound within such worship spaces. For the first time, such a
study is being conducted on the acoustical properties of an
Egyptian temple. Situated in Upper Egypt and dated back to the
1st century BCE – 1st century CE, the main temple of Dendara
complex is dedicated to Hathor, the goddess of music, love and
joy. Epigraphic and iconographic studies testify the importance
of sound activities in the temple through numerous mural
textual allusions and representations of deities, dancers or
musicians singing or playing instruments to venerate Hathor.
No text has ever been found about any acoustical considerations
that could have governed the design of such monuments.
However, the edifice presents remarkable acoustical properties,
either planned or empirically derived from geometrical or
structural considerations. The quality of silence or the presence
of environmental sounds experienced in the various volumes of
the temple, as well as the reverberation or resonances of the
different chapels or rooms were undoubtfully perceived during
daily activities or during celebrations and processions. In order
to characterize these properties, an acoustic measurement
campaign has been conducted, using a spherical microphone
array and exploiting recent advancements in the necessary postprocessing
of the collected directional room impulse responses
(DRIR). This campaign also serves as a first step towards
auralization of the 3D numerical model of the temple.

A lot of musicians are depicted on the walls of the temple of Hathor at Dendara (Upper Egypt) from the Ptolemaic and Roman era. This article deals with the representation of musicians engraved on the bases of the columns of the pronaos which seems to depict the feasts that were taking place in this large hypostyle hall. This decoration brings together divine and human performers playing side by side in the same ritual space, which is unusual. After identifying each instrumentalist and asking the question of iconographic models, parallels are drawn with musicians who have similar characteristics. They are portrayed in three other buildings from the same period: the median hall of the porch of Medamoud temple, the courtyard of the Edfu mammisi and the small temple of Hathor at Philae. This comparison highlights the ritual dimension of this musical iconography, whose function is to maintain the memory of processions.

Le temple de Dendara en Haute Égypte, bâti à l’époque ptolémaïque et romaine, porte sur ses murs une iconographie foisonnante en rapport avec la musique et la déesse Hathor. Cet article a pour objet l’analyse d’un cortège de musiciens gravé sur les bases des colonnes du pronaos qui semble mettre en scène les fêtes qui se déroulaient dans cette immense salle hypostyle. Ce décor présente la singularité d’associer, dans un même espace rituel, des interprètes divins et humains qui jouent côte à côte. Après avoir identifié chaque instrumentiste et posé la question des modèles iconographiques, des parallèles sont établis avec des musiciens représentés dans trois autres édifices de la même époque : le porche à colonnes du temple de Médamoud, le mammisi d’Edfou et le petit temple d’Hathor à Philae. Cette confrontation permet de mieux saisir la dimension rituelle de cette iconographie musicale qui a pour fonction de conserver dans la pierre la mémoire des processions.

Presentamos un tubo de hueso largo de ave, decorado con series de incisiones lineales. Esta pieza pertenece al Magdaleniense inferior de la Cueva de la Güelga. Los paralelos indican que este tema es repetitivo en esa fase paleolítica en el Cantábrico, por lo que pudiera constituir un motivo característico. Su interpretación como flauta nos permite una serie de reflexiones sobre los instrumentos musicales paleolíticos en general y sobre este tipo de piezas en particular.This paper introduces a bird bone fragment, decorated with lineal incisions. This ítem, found in the course of the archaeological works developed in the Güelga Cave (Asturias), belongs to de Early Magdalenian period. The paralells point out that this kind of decoration recurs in the Cantabrian Región along this Palaeolithic phase, so it could be a characteristic artwork at this time. The Identification of the item as a flute fragment allows us make some reflections about Palaeolithic musical Instruments.