Hurrian songs of UgaritEvidence
Evidence · Hurrian songs of Ugarit
No Mesopotamian theory or instruction text records durations by numeral, and the earlier readings of the numerals as…
No Mesopotamian theory or instruction text records durations by numeral, and the earlier readings of the numerals as counts have not been shown wrong.
What it means
Key questionWhat do the interval names and numerals in the notation of h.6 instruct a performer to play?
5 answers, none ahead yet
Openunchanged
Still possibleunchanged
Next steps 3
1
Key the notation lines of all ~35 fragments from Laroche, Ugaritica V pp. 462-496 (with Dietrich and Loretz 1975 corrections for h.6), into one CSV of fragment, line, position, Hurrian term, Akkadian equivalent, string pair and numeral, using the string-pair table DAT0DEDTRRNXZCV as the key; reproduce Rahn's 2011 counts as a check.
~12 h
—not judged
2
Test the numeral readings against a null model: compare the observed distribution of numerals 1 to 10 across all fragments with the distributions expected under repetition counts (geometric-like, no parity preference) and under duple durations (excess of 2 and 4), using a permutation test; report whether Hagel's duration reading beats the repetition reading.
~4 h
—not judged
3
Count the sung syllables of h.6 from Laroche's transliteration under both rules for the repeated line-end syllables, and compare with the note totals implied by Kilmer's, Duchesne-Guillemin's, West's and Hagel's readings; publish which readings can match under which rule.
~6 h
—not judged
Ranked by how likely each is to move the key question, for the time it takes
Sources 3
SRC
Cite it
Mysteries Department. (2026). No Mesopotamian theory or instruction text records durations by numeral, and the earlier readings of the numerals as… [Evidence EVD0DEDYNAX3GEN]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DEDYNAX3GEN
@misc{mysteriesdept_evd0dedynax3gen,
title = {No Mesopotamian theory or instruction text records durations by numeral, and the earlier readings of the numerals as…},
author = {{Mysteries Department}},
year = {2026},
note = {Evidence, catalog key EVD0DEDYNAX3GEN},
url = {https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DEDYNAX3GEN}
}