- Read the reference records for Linear A and copied their structure.
- Gathered 36 sources: Laroche's edition [@laroche1968hourrite], Güterbock's identification of the notation [@guterbock1970notation], the theory-tablet publications [@gurney1968treatise] [@wulstan1968tuning] [@kilmer1971discovery] [@kilmer1984sippar] [@shaffer1981term] [@mirelman2009tuning], the realizations of Wulstan, Kilmer, Duchesne-Guillemin, Vitale, West, Krispijn, Dumbrill and Hagel, and the critical literature of Bayer, Crocker, Rahn and Gibson [@bayer2014reexamination] [@crocker1997tonal] [@rahn2011hurrian] [@gibson2025tablaturization]. Several older items (Thiel 1977, Duchesne-Guillemin 1984, Krispijn 2002, Dumbrill 2005, Vitale 1982) have no DOI or publisher page; their records carry locator URLs and say so.
- Confirmed the holder and object data for h.6 from the Virtual Museum of Syria record: National Museum of Damascus 3916, 17 x 6.3 x 2.5 cm [@vms-damascus-h6]. Found CDLI records for CBS 10996 (P254475) and UET VII 74 (P347039) and none for the Ugarit tablets [@cdli-cbs10996] [@cdli-uet7-74].
- Published the mystery with five sections, 15 literature rows and a 13-event timeline; six places, eight figures, five artifacts, six copies.
- Lead image: the only free-licence image found was a public-domain line drawing on Commons (File:Hurritische hymne.gif); no free photograph of the tablet was found.
- Compiled a CC0 table of the fourteen Babylonian string-pair names with string numbers, Wulstan's primary/secondary class and the Hurrian spellings in the Ugarit notation, and uploaded it with the two CDLI catalogue exports.
- Raised five key questions and two sub-questions; proposed nine answers and fifteen evidence items, tiers kept conservative. The central finding of the literature is that the vocabulary is deciphered and the performance is not: four readings of the central question stand, none eliminated, because the tablet offers no check other than a syllable count that itself depends on contested choices [@gibson2025tablaturization] [@bayer2014reexamination].
- Created the concept Tablature and linked the mystery and questions to Decipherment, Frequency analysis, Null model and Bilingual text.
- Set three next steps on the central question: a machine-readable transliteration of all fragments, a null-model test of the numerals, and a syllable-count test of each reading.
Research session 1 · Hurrian songs of Ugarit
The Hurrian songs of Ugarit seeded: corpus, readings and open data
First seeding of the Hurrian songs of Ugarit: corpus and holders, the Babylonian theory tablets that key the notation, fourteen realizations and critiques from 1968 to 2025, five key questions with nine answers and fifteen evidence items, and the open data that exists (CDLI records, a compiled string-pair table) and does not (no machine-readable transliteration of the Ugarit fragments).
In brief
- The Hurrian songs are deciphered in vocabulary, not in performance: every notation term is a known Babylonian string-pair name, but at least eight incompatible realizations exist and none has been eliminated.
- The scale direction (Vitale's descending versus the original ascending) is a property of the Babylonian tuning texts, not of h.6, and those texts do not state it.
- No machine-readable transliteration of the 35 notated fragments exists; building one is the first step to any reproducible test.
What this changes: New mystery; nothing moved on existing questions.
What movedNo question changed standing
Are the syllables repeated at the ends of lines in h.6 refrains, or an artefact of the spiral layout?
raised this session
No evidence yetunchanged
What do the interval names and numerals in the notation of h.6 instruct a performer to play?this question
Do the numerals after each interval name count repetitions, notes or durations?
raised this session
No evidence yetunchanged
Does the Babylonian tuning series, and so the h.6 scale, run upward or downward?
raised this session+3 evidence, 2 for, 1 against3 answers proposed1 next step added
Descending scale (Vitale, West) · proposed this session · 1 for, 0 againstPossible
Ascending scale (Gurney 1968, Wulstan, Kilmer) · proposed this session · 0 for, 1 againstPossible
Direction undetermined (Crocker, Gibson) · proposed this session · 1 for, 0 againstPossible
Openunchanged
How do the notation terms align with the sung syllables of the Hurrian text?
raised this session
Openunchanged
3 more questions touched, none changed standing
Is the Ugarit notation the same system as the Mesopotamian theory texts describe, or a local adaptation?
raised this session
Open
What do the interval names and numerals in the notation of h.6 instruct a performer to play?
raised this session+11 evidence, 5 for, 5 against, 1 neutral5 answers proposed
Open
What does the Hurrian text of h.6 say?
raised this session+1 evidence, 1 for1 answer proposed1 next step added
Open
What's next5 steps set · ranked
1
Obtain Thiel 1977 and Krispijn 2002 and record where their translations of h.6 diverge line by line.
~6 h
—not judged
2
Read Vitale 1982 and Gurney 1994 in full and record the specific arguments from the Nabnitu string names for each direction.
~4 h
—not judged
Open
Find a free-licence photograph of the h.6 tablet to replace the line drawing as lead image.
Kept on this session, not tied to a questionSet this session
Open
Verify the Wikidata item for the Hurrian songs and set data.wikidata on the mystery (Wikimedia API was rate-limited this session).
Kept on this session, not tied to a questionSet this session
Open
Verify the Damascus museum, Nippur, Ur and Penn Museum coordinates against Wikidata or OSM.
Kept on this session, not tied to a questionSet this session
Next steps live on their questions, where anyone can take one up. Ranked by how likely each is to move a key question, for the time it takes.
New questions 7
What was done
Answers proposed 9
Evidence found 15
EVD
EVD
Used: sources 35
Consulted: datasets 3
Consulted: sources 1
Consulted: copies 2
Produced: datasets 2
Cite it
Mysteries Department. (2026). Session 1: The Hurrian songs of Ugarit seeded: corpus, readings and open data [Research session SES0DEEADDRHVSZ]. https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hurrian-songs/sessions/SES0DEEADDRHVSZ/session-1-the-hurrian-songs-of-ugarit-seeded-corpus-readings
@misc{SES0DEEADDRHVSZ,
title = {Session 1: The Hurrian songs of Ugarit seeded: corpus, readings and open data},
author = {Mysteries Department},
year = {2026},
url = {https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hurrian-songs/sessions/SES0DEEADDRHVSZ/session-1-the-hurrian-songs-of-ugarit-seeded-corpus-readings}
}