What Is the Oldest Known Song?

In the early 1950s, archaeologists excavating a long-destroyed palace in the ancient Syrian port city of Ugarit uncovered 29 clay tablets. Only one survived largely intact, but it proved extraordinary: It preserves the world’s oldest complete piece of music.

Known today as “Hurrian Hymn No. 6” (because it was discovered on the sixth tablet found in the group), the song dates to around 1400 B.C., and is dedicated to Nikkal, a Hurrian goddess associated with orchards, fertility and the moon. The upper section of the 3,400-year-old tablet contains lyrics in the ancient Near East language of Hurrian, written in cuneiform, the wedge-shaped script used across the region.

Unlike earlier references to music, the tablet also includes code-like musical notation and tuning instructions in its lower section. That allows modern scholars to reconstruct how the song may have sounded. “[It is] the earliest known notated song,” says Richard Dumbrill, an archaeomusicology expert who has written extensively about the Hurrian tablets.

Many earlier civilizations left evidence of music. Egyptian tomb paintings depict musicians and instruments, while ancient Sumerian poems and hymns mention instruments as well. One Sumerian tablet referring to a song in praise of King Lipit-Ishtar, dates to around 500 years earlier than “Hurrian Hymn No. 6.”

What makes the Hurrian hymn unique is that it preserves actual musical information, including numeric symbols indicating musical intervals and instructions for tuning a stringed instrument. That combination has inspired modern scholars to attempt to recreate the melody—and musicians to perform it.

French archaeologists excavating the Late Bronze Age royal palace in Ugarit, on the Mediterranean coast of present-day Syria, uncovered the tablets during digs that began in the 1930s, paused during World War II and resumed in the early 1950s. The tablets, found in what is believed to have been the palace’s extensive archival wing, are now housed at the National Museum of Damascus.

The hymn was written by a Hurrian scribe, though exactly who remains uncertain. Some researchers believe the tablet may preserve the name Ammurabi, but evidence remains inconclusive.

The lyrics, written in the now mostly lost language of Hurrian, appear to be a prayer to Nikkal. Some scholars interpret the hymn as the plea from a young woman seeking help with infertility. The text also mentions offerings, including a substance called “šam-šam,” which Dumbrill says may be interpreted as sesame oil or seeds, materials commonly used in ancient ritual practice.

For decades after its discovery, the "Hurrian Hymn No. 6" tablet remained a mystery. In the 1970s, scholars began proposing ways to interpret its unusual musical notation. One influential reconstruction, by Anne Draffkorn Kilmer, former professor of Assyriology at the University of California, argued that the tablet recorded both lyrics and musical instructions, including directions for tuning a lyre. British scholar Martin L. West interpreted the markings as possibly indicating how a musician might position their hands on the lyre's strings.

Not everyone agrees on exactly how the notation should be read, and competing interpretations remain. As a result, there is no single definitive version of the melody. As Dumbrill argues, "Hurrian Hymn No. 6" may have served more as a framework for musical performance rather than as a note-for-note score in the modern sense.

Dumbrill says his favorite modern-day performance of the song is by his colleague Sevan Habib, a Syrian-born Armenian soprano and musicologist. “I’ve heard the most incredible pieces made with the music,” he says. Musician Michael Levy performs a modern lyre-based reconstruction, and, Dumbrill adds, “there have also been attempts at making pop music out of it, with electric guitars and so forth.”