Entertainment

Sources

Dance. Dancing was depicted in Mesopotamian artworks before circa 3000 b.c.e., but most images of dancers date from circa 2000 - circa 1000 b.c.e., and few occur after circa 1000 b.c.e. Dancers performed in religious rituals and on occasions such as weddings and harvest festivals. Dancers performed alone, in pairs, and in groups. Men and women did not dance together. Instead they took turns. Sometimes one group sang while the other danced. Dance steps included jumping and leaping, kneeling and bending, and dancing on one’s toes. Line dancers and circle dancers were usually women. Men performed a squat dance (something like the well-known folk dance performed by Russian cos-sacks), a foot-clutch dance in which the dancer hopped on one leg while holding up the other leg in front or behind his body, and a whirling dance similar to that of Islamic “whirling dervishes.” Dancers sometimes performed on platforms or tables. In cultic festivals entertainers danced and sang. They might be in costume, masked, or naked. Ordinary people also danced during magic healing rituals. Palaces and temples employed dancers, as well as instrumentalists and singers.

Music. Instrumental musicians and singers were also featured at royal and religious festivals, appearing along with snake charmers, bear trainers, and jesters. Instrumentalists may have accompanied dancers or singers as well as reciters of epics and myths. Sometimes musicians are shown dancing. Instrumentalists and singers

were depicted in Neo-Assyrian military scenes, accompanying the army as they marched into battle.

Singers. Singers were both male and female. Their repertoire consisted of religious and secular works. Texts mention solo singers and choirs. Sometimes captured women were trained to become singers.

Songs. Songs were central to religious ceremonies and rituals in the ancient Near East. The earliest known composer of religious songs was Enheduana, the priestess of the moon god Nanna and the daughter of Sargon of Akkad (circa 2334 - circa 2279 b.c.e.). A Middle Assyrian text of circa 1100 b.c.e. lists more than three hundred Sumerian and Akkadian songs in more than thirty categories. The complete texts for some songs have survived, while only the opening line exists for others. Second millennium b.c.e. tablets from Babylonia, Assyria, and Ugarit in Syria described music theory, naming the nine strings of the harp and using a heptatonic (seven-note) scale. A libretto and score for a psalm praising the moon goddess Nikkal was found complete at the site of thirteenth century b.c.e. Ugarit. Complete scores have also been found.

Musical Instruments. Mesopotamians played musical instruments from the string, wind, and percussion families. Mesopotamians also had trumpets, but they used these instruments from the horn family for communication, as in battle, not as musical instruments. In the string family, harps and lyres, as well as a few examples of lutes, have been found at ancient sites throughout the Near East. Mesopotamians also played single and double pipes, wind instruments. Circular drums ranged in size from a small hand drum to a standing drum about four to five feet in diameter. A large kettledrum was beaten in the temple courtyard during eclipses of the moon. Performers generally used small handheld drums and other percussion instruments, including cymbals and rattles.

Recitation of Written Works. Some written compositions were performed on public occasions. For example, the Babylonian creation myth, Enuma elish, was

recited at the akitu-festival, or New Year’s festival, at Babylon, and its battle scene may have been re-enacted. Other texts include instructions that they be recited as part of particular religious rituals. Each city had its own rites and honored particular gods.

Narration. Some compositions addressed their audience directly. For example, the narrator of the Epic of Gilgamesh speaks directly to the tablet reader and anyone listening to him, praising the accomplishments of king Gilgamesh and asking his audience to examine Gilgamesh’s monuments, that is, the temple, the city wall, and the lapis lazuli tablet buried as part of the foundation deposit in the wall.

Dialogues. Dialogues such as the Babylonian Theodicy (circa eleventh century b.c.e.) and the Dialogue of Pessimism (first millennium b.c.e.) may also have been performance pieces since they are written in the form of scripts for two actors. In the Babylonian Theodicy, a brooding piece that echoes parts of the biblical book of Job, a sufferer and his friend discuss why the gods allow man to suffer. A series of exchanges between a master and his servant, the Dialogue of Pessimism is a more humorous examination of the purpose of life. When the master suggests a plan of action, the servant obsequiously agrees with him. When the master proposes doing the exact opposite, the servant agrees with him again. Only at the end of the dialogue does the servant express his own opinions about life and his master. Other dialogues feature exchanges between characters such as Summer and Winter, the Pickaxe and the Plough, the Date Palm and the Tamarisk. These contests end with judgments and reconciliations in which the contestants leave as good friends.

The Audience. In some cases, scholars can only speculate about the size and makeup of audiences for performances of literary works; that is, whether these works were performed only before the royal court or for the general public. Certainly, however, these literary compositions show an awareness of the tastes and standards of their time.

Sources

Mark E. Cohen, The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East (Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 1993).

Anne D. Kilmer, “Music and Dance in Ancient Western Asia,” in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, 4 volumes, edited by Jack M. Sasson (New York: Scribners, 1995), IV: 2601–2613.

Kilmer and others, “Musik,” Reallexicon der Assyriologie, 8 (1995–1997): 463–469.

Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat, Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, Daily Life through History (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998).