Re-enacting Neo-Assyrian and Seleucid cuneiform ritual texts: The case of the instructions about the fabrication of the lilissu's drumhead

Several Neo-Assyrian and Seleucid cuneiform texts describe the fashioning process for the drum-head of the Mesopotamian kettledrum (Akkadian lilissu ) as a part of the ritual for "covering" (arāmu ) the lilissu's head with such a skin membrane. The texts in question, however, offer variations in the number of employed materials and/or omit steps in such a fabrication. In that sense, the presenter is devoting a Postdoctoral Project (2022-2023; Hebrew University of Jerusalem & Universidad de Granada) to the philological, ethnographic, and experimental analysis of these texts. The assessment of these texts’ content (are all the varieties of the fabrication process equally workable?) and the filling of gaps in the knowledge of the most complete account on the fabrication of musical instruments in Ancient Mesopotamia is equally sought. The project should eventually create a drum-head following those instructions and test it on other historical kettledrums, comparing, their similarities and differences in sound and playability. This talk aims to publicly present its, mainly philological and ethnographic, conclusions so far and discuss with other scholars the possible ways for its experimental component, shaping then the future steps in this innovative study.