Studien zur Musikarchäologie XII

These conference proceedings contain a foreword and an introduction by the editors, eight papers, and an appendix on the authors. The workshop aimed at revealing culture-specific characteristics of ancient musical cultures and describe their impact - be it as tradition or as innovation - beyond the borders of their own culture. The investigation concentrated on the Middle Eastern and Oriental sphere, but was also conducted in a cross-epochal way within antiquity and modern times. The papers deal with the archaeology of the monoxyle lute, golden musical instruments and travelling musicians in 18th-century B.C. Mari, Hittite ritual music as an expression of the musical setting of religious interculturalism or political theology, research on the music of the Arab provinces under Ottoman rule, questions on the origins and offspring of the harp beyond the borders of Egypt, music and ritual in Ancient Mesopotamia according to the Late Babylonian temple festivals, Mesopotamian ritual laments, "music therapy", and the role of song in the conception of the deity, as well as Biblical song in transit, translation, and transformation.