Music archaeology

The field has also expanded to include neurophysiological, biological, and psychological research examining the prerequisites for music production in humans.

The main stimulus for this session was the sensational discovery of an ancient Mesopotamian musical system by Anne D. Kilmer, an Assyriologist in Berkeley.

Prior to the conference a replica of a Sumerian lyre had been made, with the help of musicologist Richard L. Crocker (Berkeley) and instrument maker Robert Brown, and Kilmer's version of the Hurrian hymn had been recorded and released, accompanied by a carefully prepared commentary, as Sounds from Silence: Recent Discoveries in Ancient Near Eastern Music (LP with information booklet, Bit Enki Publications, Berkeley, 1976).

A new series called "Studien zur Musikarchäologie" was created as a sub-series of "Orient-Archäologie" to present the conference reports of the ISGMA, and to integrate music-archaeological monographs independent of the Study Group's meetings; it is published by the Orient Department of the DAI through the Verlag Marie Leidorf.

After a couple of years of inactivity, Julia L. J. Sanchez re-established the Study Group in 2003 on the initiative of Anthony Seeger, beginning with meetings in Los Angeles, California (2003), and Wilmington, North Carolina (2006).

Also in 2013, a new print series was launched, Publications of the ICTM Study Group on Music Archaeology, published through Ekho Verlag.

The event showcased the outcomes of collaborative research and creative practice by archaeologists, composers, filmmakers, and performers from across Europe and the Americas.

Whilst inspired and driven by research in music archaeology, Palaeophonics represents the emergence of a new, possibly significant, development within the field and within musicology which approaches the subject through the production and performance of new sound- and music-based multi-media creative works instead of through direct representation and reproduction.

In addition, specialists such as psychologists, organologists, biologists, chemists, and historians can be key in understanding past musical behaviors.

The information obtained from various scientific approaches can deepen the interpretation of past musical behaviors, sound artefacts, and acoustic spaces.