One of the first attempts to join the two distinct disciplines of musicology and archaeology took place at the conference of the
International Musicological Society at
Berkeley in 1977. One of the round tables was designated "Music and Archaeology", to which were invited specialists to discuss the musical remains of ancient cultures: Bathia Bayer (Israel), Charles Boilès (Mexico), Ellen Hickmann (Egypt), David Liang (China),
Cajsa S. Lund (Sweden). The main stimulus for this session was the sensational discovery of an ancient Mesopotamian musical system by Anne D. Kilmer, an
Assyriologist in Berkeley. On the basis of this discovery, excavated from
Ugarit, she was able to advance a decipherment and transcription into Western notation of a late Bronze Age hymn in the
Hurrian language, which contained notation based on the
Mesopotamian system. 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). At the round table in Berkeley, Kilmer explained their method of reconstruction and demonstrated the resulting sound. This was the starting point of the ICTM Study Group on Music Archaeology, officially founded within the
International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) in Seoul/Korea in 1981, and recognized by the ICTM in New York in 1983 following its first meeting on current music-archaeological research in Cambridge/UK in 1982. The ICTM Study Group on Music Archaeology went on to hold international conferences in Stockholm (1984), Hannover/Wolfenbüttel (1986), Saint Germain-en-Laye (1990), Liège (1992), Istanbul (1993), Jerusalem (1994/1995, together with the ICTM-Study Group for Iconography), and Limassol, Cyprus (1996). These meetings resulted in comprehensive conference reports. The
International Study Group on Music Archaeology (ISGMA) has been founded by Ellen Hickmann and
Ricardo Eichmann in 1998. The Study Group emerged from the ICTM Study Group on Music Archaeology with the objective to obtain closer cooperation with archaeologists. Since then, the ISGMA has worked continuously with the
German Archaeological Institute, Berlin (DAI, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Berlin). 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. Between 1998 and 2004, conferences of ISGMA were held every two years at Michaelstein Monastery, Music Academy of Sachsen-Anhalt (Kloster Michaelstein, Landesmusikakademie Sachsen-Anhalt), sponsored by the
German Research Foundation (DFG, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). In close cooperation with the Department for Ethnomusicology at the
Ethnological Museum of Berlin (Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, SMB SPK, Abteilung Musikethnologie, Medien-Technik und Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv), the 5th and 6th Symposium of the ISGMA were held in 2006 respectively in 2008 at the
Ethnological Museum of Berlin. In friendly cooperation with the
Tianjin Conservatory of Music, the 7th Symposium of the ISGMA was held in Tianjin, China, in 2010. The 8th Symposium of the ISGMA (2012) was also held in China, in Suzhou and Beijing; three more symposiums have been held since then, with Germany and China continuing to alternate as hosts. The ICTM Study Group on Music Archaeology continued to develop separately and hold its own events, although a number of researchers remained involved in both groups. 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). These were followed by a joint-conference in New York (2009), the 11th of the Study Group since its foundation in 1981 (also the 12th Conference of the Research Center for Music Iconography). The 12th conference was then held in Valladolid, Spain (2011), which was the largest meeting of the ICTM Study Group to date, followed by the 13th Symposium of the Study Group held in Guatemala in 2013. Also in 2013, a new print series was launched, Publications of the ICTM Study Group on Music Archaeology, published through Ekho Verlag. On 27 May 2011, a public concert under the banner of
Palaeophonics, funded by the
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Beyond Text programme and the
University of Edinburgh Campaign, took place at the
George Square Theatre in Edinburgh. 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. Described by some observers as "experimental" and "avant-garde", the event provoked mixed feedback from a public audience of around 250 people. In 2013, the European Music Archaeology Project (EMAP) was funded by the EU funding programme EACEA, for a period of five years. The project developed a touring exhibition on ancient music in Europe and an elaborate concert and event program. == Approaches ==