Hurrian Hymn No. 6: The World’s Oldest Song

Long before streaming, vinyl, or even Mozart, there was Hurrian Hymn No. 6 — the oldest known piece of music ever discovered.

Dating back over 3,400 years, this ancient hymn was inscribed on a clay tablet in the city of Ugarit (modern-day Syria) around 1400 BCE. It was written in the Hurrian language using cuneiform script and was part of a larger set of hymns dedicated to Nikkal, the goddess of orchards.

What makes Hymn No. 6 so special? It's the only tablet from the set that includes both lyrics and musical notation. That means historians and musicologists were able to reconstruct the melody — at least as best as we can interpret it — making this the earliest song in human history that we can actually play and hear today.

The notation system was very different from what we use now, based on a Babylonian tuning system and ancient scales. The reconstructed melody is haunting, mesmerizing, and deeply moving — a timeless reminder that music has always been a part of what it means to be human.

Listening to the Hurrian Hymn No. 6 is like time-traveling. It's a connection across millennia — proof that even in ancient times, people were composing, worshipping, expressing, and remembering through music.