These songs are examples of how art and science can come together to create something incredible. Musician Stef Conner learned to read several ancient Babylonian and Sumerian tablets written in cuneiform script, using historians' research to figure out likely pronunciation. Just listen to the results.


Conner is accompanied here by Andy Lowings, who recreates ancient instruments and plays a giant lyre that would have been used by the people who wrote these songs thousands of years ago.


Over at Newsweek, Douglas Main writes:

But how does one reincarnate music that no human voice has uttered for millennia? Conner says a key step was to really understand the language. She carefully studied historical analysis of the stresses and intonations of Babylonian and Sumerian for hints as to how it may have sounded, and researched how language is converted into music in similar Semitic languages. Then, after choosing and memorizing a piece of writing or poem, Conner collaborated with Lowings to create the melody.

You can learn more on Conner's website, and buy her album on iTunes!