Music is a very special gift that people from all around the world, from various cultures and from every socio-economic class, enjoy. Human beings have been creating and listening to music for thousands of years, it is almost an essential part of our being. The oldest song in English still sung today is Sumer is icumen in. It is dated before 1260.

Music has the power to evoke powerful emotions, it can lift us out of a bad mood and put a smile on our face, give us the energy and encouragement we need to get that workout done and more. We connect over music, we make music together, we meditate and zone out to music, and we even ‘trip out’ to music. What would our lives be like without music? Most likely Rather dull, and it seems as though the ancients felt the same way.

Below is a video of a hymn that is said to have been written thousands of years ago, it may even be the oldest song in the world. This version is played using computerized tones, but if you can, imagine it being played on stringed instruments. Either way, it still has a joyous and almost comical feel to it, check it out.

Is this something you could jam to? Or at least is this something you could imagine your greatest ancestors rocking out to? Regardless of how you feel about the song, it’s pretty awesome that we actually have the equivalent to sheet music that was turned into a potential soundtrack for ancient times. Essentially, this gives us the ability to glimpse into the past, an opportunity we may not have otherwise received. Sometimes what is put into words isn’t as powerful to our senses as actually hearing the same song that our ancestors may have listened to.

Here’s A Little History

In 1972, after 15 years of research, Professor of Assyriology from the University of California, Anne Kilner, was able to transcribe one of the oldest known pieces of music notation in the world. The music was inscribed on clay tablets that contained signs of the “Hurrian” language. These tablets had been excavated in the early 1950s from the Syrian city of ancient Ugarit – now known as Ras Sharma. One of the tablets contained both words and music and has now come to be known as the oldest preserved music notation in the world.

Kilmer was able to transcribe this piece of music into modern music notation, other people have also attempted to transcribe this music and the interpretations tend to differ a little bit. The tablets date back to around 1400 B.C. The music is a hymn to the moon God’s wife, Nikal. The tablets also happened to contain instructions for a singer as well as a harpist and how to properly tune the harp.

This post The Oldest Song In The World – A Sumerian Hymn Written 3500 Years Ago (Listen) first appeared on Collective Evolution.