Music and Musicians in Mari – a Diachronic Overview
Nele Ziegler, Director of Research at the French Center of Research (CNRS, Paris)

Music and its performers played an important role in Mesopotamian culture, and some musicians could have high ranking social positions. The cuneiform tablets from the royal palace of the ancient city of Mari (Tell Hariri, Syria) present a uniquely detailed picture of how musicians lived and music was experienced at court. Most notably, letters sent by the musicians themselves to the various kings who successively ruled over the city provide a window into the lives of male and female musicians, the nature of musical performance, the instruments they played and the way musical education was organized. Dr Ziegler, the author of Les musiciens et la musique d'après les archives de Mari (Paris, 2007) and of many articles on the topic, will offer a diachronic overview on how music was lived and experienced in the capital city of Mari, from the midthird millennium BCE until the destruction of the palace by Ḫammurabi of Babylon in the 18th century BCE… and beyond.