ICOBASE is a databank administered by ICONEA. It is exclusively devoted to the archaeomusicology of the near and middle east and neighbouring cultures and civilisations. It is constantly developing and expects contributions from its visitors. It is the receptacle of the iconography, the terracottae, extant instruments, cuneiform texts, and all materials relevant to the subject. Should you wish to propose a new entry, addenda and corrigenda, send an email to rdumbrill@iconea.org
BM 141632 - Click on image to enlarge
Classification
ICOBASE has two main categories: Instruments and Cuneiform texts, and some occasional entries for special events, conferences, new publications, research news, etc. Instruments are listed as ‘Bells’; ‘Rattles’; ‘Clappers’; ‘Lyres’; ‘Lutes’; ‘Harps’, etc. Instruments might be either extant, represented on seals, represented on terracotta plaques or figurines, on stellae, on bullae, on slabs or bas-reliefs. The classification does not distinguish the media on which they are represented. However, a search by medium is possible. In the search window if you type: ’seal, harp’ this will direct you to all harps represented on seals, or seal impressions. If you type in: ‘Lute, terracotta, statuette’ this will give you all lutes represented on terracotta statuettes, and so forth.
All pictures and tables in the database have a zoom-in and out function. Click with the left button anywhere in the picture to zoom-in and click again to zoom out.
High resolution pictures
Should you wish to order high resolution pictures from the database, please send your request to rdumbrill@iconea.org mentioning the museum number of the item.
All pictures in this database are the copyright of Richard Dumbrill, Myriam Marcetteau or Margaux Bousquet, unless otherwise stated.