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In the early 1950s, archaeologists discovered clay tablets dating back to 1400 BC. These tablets were found in the ancient city of “Ugarit” in present-day Syria and were written in cuneiform script in the Hurrian language. After investigations, it was determined that this was the earliest piece of music ever discovered, recounting a 3,400-year-old religious hymn.
Anna Kilmer, professor of Assyriology at the University of California, obtained a translation of this text in 1972 and applied musical notes to it.

Richard Fink claimed in a 1988 article that the current seven-note scale has origins dating back to this Sumerian hymn. This research contradicts the prevailing belief that attributes the current seven-note scale to ancient Greece.

Richard Crocker, Kilmer’s colleague, says this new finding “transforms all beliefs about the origins of Western music.”