The oldest known song, "The Prayer of an Infertile Woman," received its North American premiere last week:
Inscribed in cuneiform symbols on a clay tablet, this tune is, in fact, 1,200 years older than Jesus.The performance took place at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute. A film clip accompanies the article.
The singer was Dr. Theo J. H. Krispijn, an accomplished vocalist who has appeared on Dutch television. He also is a professor in Assyriology at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and, in that role, brought back -- after 3,200 years of silence -- the plaintive cry of the infertile woman beseeching the moon goddess, Nikkal, for a solution to her problem.
New voice for the oldest song ever (Chicago Tribune)(Thanks, Stefan!)
Another Mesopotamian post: Gilgamesh travesty
comments: 2
What a beautiful song. It is so sad how much a woman's worth was wrapped up in something she could not control.
On a less sombre note, I wonder if the people of groups like this would believe it if somehow they were told that in the future women would believe that about 39% of affluent, smart women between the ages of 18-22 (my description of those enrolled in an undergraduate education in America) would take a measures to prevent conception.
My apologies for not proofreading on Michael Leddy's blog. Slow down. Proofread. OK...
And now, please pretend that the incoherent words ("in the future women would believe that") from the second paragraph are not there. Thank you!
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