To browse Academia. I was perhaps too overzealous in some places, but I here make the study available for the usage of others to help in their research, in continuity with the example set by Andreas Hirt, whose decision to publish his own early MA work online helped me immensely in the composition of my own. I also provide the chapters in separate uploads, to make for more manageable file sizes and an easier read, for those with less beefy computer, or who simply are only interested in one of the instrument families.
Yet it is only recently that percussion instruments have been considered in connection with the contexts of their discovery and their use in performance places and spaces in order to understand their functions in sacred, domestic, and funerary spheres.
The difficulty in treating the question of location arises from the fact that, in many cases, it is complicated to establish the precise dating and location of instruments in a given space and this specific location's particular meaning. However, when percussion instruments survive in an archaeological context along with images, inscriptions, and possibly other written sources, it is possible to outline the aspects of the occasion for which they were played and offered within a ritual performance; they serve as valuable pieces of evidence not only for reconstruction of their function in religious and social practices, but also for enriching our understanding of music and dance performances in daily life of the past.
Thus, through an archaeomusicological approach to performance which places musical and choral activities within an actual or symbolic space, the study of percussion instruments constitutes a valuable subject of investigation to shed light on the ritual meaning and social function of sonic events, as well as on the role of musicians and dancers in antiquity.
In organising the workshop, Arnaud Saura-Ziegelmeyer was particularly concerned with approaching the subject from as global a perspective as possible, and was therefore eager to focus on work outside his own particular area of expertise, namely, the Greek and Roman worlds. Thus, the essays included in this publication represent a significant number of geographical areas and cultures of the ancient world, including the Mediterranean, the PALLAS, , , PP. Introduction to the Volume Music and Ritual.
