# Oldest song **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 10, 2016, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-song/774318 "2016-12-10T00:35:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-song/774318/1 "2016-12-10T00:35:04Z")
What is the oldest song. I did a search with no results. Anyway, what is the oldest song we have written notation for? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-song/774318/2 "2016-12-10T00:42:55Z")
**Moderator Action** Since this is about music, let’s move it to Cafe Society (from GQ). ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-song/774318/3 "2016-12-10T00:45:56Z")
I found this on google: > [@](#): > > But for the title of oldest extant song, most historians point to “Hurrian Hymn No. 6,” an ode to the goddess Nikkal that was composed in cuneiform by the ancient Hurrians sometime around the 14th century B.C. The clay tablets containing the tune were excavated in the 1950s from the ruins of the city of Ugarit in Syria. Along with a near-complete set of musical notations, they also include specific instructions for how to play the song on a type of nine-stringed lyre. > … > “Hurrian Hymn No. 6” is considered the world’s earliest melody, but the oldest musical composition to have survived in its entirety is a first century A.D. Greek tune known as the “Seikilos Epitaph.” The song was found engraved on an ancient marble column used to mark a woman’s gravesite in Turkey. From here: [What Is the Oldest Known Piece of Music? | HISTORY](http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/what-is-the-oldest-known-piece-of-music) ETA: You can see the written notation and can also listen to Hurrian Hymn No. 6 here: > **[Listen to the Oldest Song in the World: A Sumerian Hymn Written 3,400 Years Ago](https://www.openculture.com/2014/07/the-oldest-song-in-the-world.html)** > > In the early 1950s, archaeologists unearthed several clay tablets from the 14th century B.C.E.. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-song/774318/4 "2016-12-10T02:37:51Z")
Now if we could only find the previous five! ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-song/774318/5 "2016-12-10T03:14:41Z")
I was into the Hurrians before most people, but then they sold out and got too commercial. We’ll probably hear them hymning over a Nike ad next. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-song/774318/6 "2016-12-10T03:25:59Z")
According to _Family Guy_, [this is the oldest song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHxKXSvcRik&app=desktop). ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-song/774318/7 "2016-12-10T04:06:48Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > I was into the Hurrians before most people, but then they sold out and got too commercial. We’ll probably hear them hymning over a Nike ad next. It was all over after Neil Young released “Like A Hurrian.” (Sorry I just stole that from the link) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-song/774318/8 "2016-12-10T04:11:58Z")
Wasn’t Mick Jagger in the original group, “The Rolling Clay Tablets”? Or hasn’t he been carbon-dated to the same period? ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-song/774318/9 "2016-12-10T04:13:48Z")
Whatever the song was, it entered the Billboard Top 100 at number one.