ancient Egypt
ancient Nile Valley
ancient wind instruments
aulos
Category=AVM
Category=AVRN
Category=AVRN2
Category=NHC
Category=NHHA
Category=NKD
Category=NKDS
Empire of Kush
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_music
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
forthcoming
music of classical antiquity
North Africa
Nubia
Queen Amanishakheto
Sudan
Product details
- ISBN 9781957454740
- Dimensions: 229 x 305mm
- Publication Date: 30 Jun 2026
- Publisher: Lockwood Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
In 1921, the Harvard University-Museum of Fine Arts Expedition to Meroë in the northern Sudan excavated a cache of ancient wind instruments in the tomb of Queen Amanishakheto from the late first century BCE. Although recognized as important testimonies to the music of classical antiquity at the moment of discovery, the instruments were highly deteriorated and fragmented. Over decades, scholars attempted to understand the find, but the sheer number of fragments had made a meaningful interpretation almost hopeless—until now. This volume presents the results of a twelve-year-long research and conservation project on the auloi of Meroë. It offers a contextualized narrative of discovery, detailed documentation of the cache, and the technical and musical interpretations of the twelve pipes. It serves readers with various interests, ranging from Nubia and the ancient Nile Valley through the histories of music and technology between the Greco-Roman world and the Empire of Kush, and particularly the community of scholars and practitioners of the aulos.
Susanne Gänsicke is an archaeological conservator and head of antiquities conservation at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Stefan Hagel is a senior research at the Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences.
