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Concept
Music archaeology
Summary
Music archaeology is an interdisciplinary field of study that combines musicology and archaeology. As it includes the study of music from various cultures, it is often considered to be a subfield of ethnomusicology.
According to music archaeologist Adje Both, "In its broadest sense, music archaeology is the study of the phenomenon of past musical behaviours and sounds." Music archaeologists often combine methods from musicology and archaeology. A theoretical and methodological foundation has yet to be established, and remains one of the main areas of interest for the international community of researchers.
Research goals in the field include the study of artifacts relevant to the reconstruction of ancient music, such as sound-producing devices, representations of musical scenes, and textual evidence. The archaeological analysis and documentation of such artifacts, including their dating, description, and analysis of their origin and cultural context, can improve understanding of the usage of an instrument and can sometimes enable reconstruction of functional replicas. Textual study may involve the investigation of early musical notations and literary sources.
The field has also expanded to include neurophysiological, biological, and psychological research examining the prerequisites for music production in humans.
One of the first attempts to join the two distinct disciplines of musicology and archaeology took place at the conference of the International Musicological Society at Berkeley in 1977. One of the round tables was designated "Music and Archaeology", to which were invited specialists to discuss the musical remains of ancient cultures: Bathia Bayer (Israel), Charles Boilès (Mexico), Ellen Hickmann (Egypt), David Liang (China), Cajsa S. Lund (Sweden). The main stimulus for this session was the sensational discovery of an ancient Mesopotamian musical system by Anne D. Kilmer, an Assyriologist in Berkeley.
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