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.
