Theme:
1. Networks, networking, communication: archaeology of interactions
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
The Cross-Cultural Crossbar/ Music and the High Cs
Content:
This session explores the idea of music in Antiquity as a method of cross-country cultural communication. The process of creating and playing music suggests that these activities were learnt and transmitted through transgenerational interaction, implying the need of an audience and hence, encouraged social synergy. Music is, after all, a system of communication that linked peoples from different backgrounds. When viewed from this perspective, music is a distinctly local phenomenon, with music helping to delineate shared identities and beliefs.
However, the ancient Greek poet Pindar spoke of song travelling out on ships, and we know that not just songs, but musicians too, travelled out on ships, living highly mobile lives. In this sense, music was a highly cross-cultural phenomenon. This panel argues that viewing music as an invisible commodity will improve our understanding of ancient trade and travel more broadly, by analysing musical iconography, surviving instruments, sound tools and epigraphy. This panel encourages interdisciplinary approaches to the study of ancient musical networks.
This dichotomy of materiality (realia) and immateriality (sound) will allow us to pinpoint networks, sporadic contacts and shared mechanisms of musical activities maintained by different social groups from across the broad period of the global Iron Age (very roughly 12th century BCE – 4th century CE).
We encourage papers on topics such as, but not limited to:
- Representation of ritual music
- Musical networks
- Organological comparisons and studies
- Visual media analysis: musical iconography
- Methodological approaches to study musical networks
- Music as a commodity
Keywords:
Musical Iconography, Organology, Musical networks, Musical interactions, Ritual music, Music in Epigraphy
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
yes
Session associated with SAfA:
yes
Session associated with CAA:
yes
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Claudina Romero Mayorga (United Kingdom) 1
Co-organisers:
James Lloyd (United Kingdom) 2
Angela Bellia (Italy) 3,4
Affiliations:
1. Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology (University of Reading)
2. University of Reading
3. Institute for Archaeological and Monumental Heritage, Rome
4. Archaeomusicology Interest Group of the Archaeological Institute of America (AMIG).
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