China has released the world’s first moon atlases. Credit: JanetR3. CC BY 2.0/flickr
China has reached a new frontier within lunar exploration and scientific research with its release of the world’s first complete high-definition geologic atlases of the moon.
The atlases, available in both Chinese and English, are an all-encompassing tool made up of the Geologic Atlas of the Lunar Globe and the Map Quadrangles of the Geologic Atlas of the Moon. The release of the atlases marks a significant advancement for future lunar research and exploration.
The atlas set, scaled at 1:2.5 million, provides comprehensive and up-to-date map data crucial for upcoming lunar missions and research programs.
The atlas project addresses a dearth of lunar geology mapping and also establishes a fresh benchmark for international collaboration in lunar research pursuits. With progress being made in the area of lunar exploration, these atlases will prove useful to scientists globally, helping with more accurate and efficient study programs and explorations of the moon.
China moon atlases’ potential for future research
The major significance of these new geologic atlases of the moon lies in their potential to aid the study of how the moon evolves, selecting sites for future lunar research stations, and utilizing lunar materials.
It may also improve our understanding of Earth and other celestial bodies within our solar system. Ouyang Ziyuan, a leading lunar scientist and academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), reportedly emphasized that the atlases are of great importance for these purposes.
Liu Jianzhong, a senior researcher at the Institute of Geochemistry of the CAS, pointed out that the lunar geologic maps used since the Apollo missions have remained the same for almost 50 years, and are now outdated for current lunar exploration purposes, as reported by The Times of India.
With advances in lunar geologic studies, the old maps can no longer meet the demands of future scientific research and lunar exploration.
The atlases were put together by a team of researchers and cartographers from a cluster of institutions in China, led by Ouyang Ziyuan and Liu Jianzhong since 2012. The team based its work on exploration data retrieved by China’s Chang’e lunar exploration program and other research findings from both Chinese and international missions.
The team established an updated lunar geological time scale, objectively showing the geological evolution of the moon, and clearly depicting the characteristics of lunar tectonic and magmatic evolution.
These atlases not only provide crucial data and scientific references for directing and carrying out scientific objectives within China’s lunar exploration program but also enhance the investigation into the moon’s origin and the evolution of the solar system.
A new study says that human brains are getting bigger with a 6.6 percent increase between the 1930s and 1970s. Credit: EUSKALANATO / Flickr / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
A new study suggests our brains might be growing larger over time. This finding could prove useful in fighting memory loss as we age.
Researchers at UC Davis Health found the brains of individuals born in the 1970s were bigger by about 6.6 percent and had a 15 percent larger surface area compared to those born in the 1930s. The new study was published in March in “JAMA Neurology.”
Charles DeCarli, the lead researcher of the study and a distinguished professor of neurology at UC Davis, told ScienceDaily that while genetics is a big factor in brain size, their findings suggest that other factors such as health, social interactions, culture, and education may also have an impact.
Brain size increased by 6.6 percent between the 1930s and 1970s
The researchers analyzed data from the Framingham Heart Study, a long-term community study based in Framingham, Massachusetts, spanning seventy-five years and involving multiple generations, as reported by the New York Post.
Between March 1999 and November 2019, scientists examined brain scans of 3,226 participants born between 1925 and 1968. They found a consistent trend. Brain volume increased gradually over time.
In the 1930s, the average brain volume was 1,234 millimeters, while by the 1970s, it had risen to 1,321 millimeters, marking a 6.6 percent increase.
Similarly, the cortical surface area, or the brain’s outer layer, also expanded from 2,056 square centimeters in those born in the 1930s to 2,104 square centimeters in those born in the 1970s.
Increase in size of gray matter, white matter, and the hippocampus
The researchers also noted an increase in the size of gray matter, white matter, and the hippocampus—an area linked to learning and memory.
White matter, situated in the brain’s inner tissues, consists of nerve fibers facilitating communication between different regions. It gets its name from the white myelin sheath covering the nerves.
On the other hand, gray matter, located in the brain’s outer layer, governs movement, memory, and emotions. It gets its name from the dense concentration of neuronal cell bodies, which impart a grayish color to the tissue.
The findings bring hope, as they suggest a potential decline in age-related dementias such as Alzheimer’s, according to scientists.
“Larger brain structures like those observed in our study may reflect improved brain development and improved brain health,” DeCarli explained. “A larger brain structure represents a larger brain reserve and may buffer the late-life effects of age-related brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and related dementias.”
The brilliant general and mathematician Archytas—one of many polymaths in Ancient Greece—has a crater on the Moon named after him. Credit: Selinous /CC BY-SA 4.0
Archytas of Tarentum, who was born around the year 435 BC in what is now Taranto, Apulia, Italy, was another in a long line of brilliant polymaths from Ancient Greece, a noted military general and strategist who also made his mark in the realms of geometry, physics, astronomy, and music.
A friend of Plato, he was a brilliant philosopher, as well. As a scientist, he belonged to the Pythagorean school and became well-known for being the reputed founder of mathematical mechanics.
The son of Mnesagoras, Archytas was taught by Philolaus, and was himself a teacher of mathematics to Eudoxus of Cnidus. They both had Menaechmus as a mathematical student. As a Pythagorean, Archytas purportedly believed that only arithmetic, not geometry, could provide a basis for satisfactory proofs. However, his later invention of what came to be called Archytas’ curve disproved that theory.
As described in the writings of Aulus Gellius—five centuries after he lived—he was reputed to have designed and built the first artificial, self-propelled flying device, a bird-shaped model propelled by a jet of what was probably steam, said to have actually flown some 200 meters.
Known today as the “Pigeon of Archytas,” it is famous for being the basis of many a backyard experiment in the physics of steam. His original apparatus may have been suspended on a wire or pivot for its flight.
Archytas also wrote some lost works on the science of mechanics, as he was included by Vitruvius in the list of the twelve authors of works of mechanics.
Archytas named the harmonic mean, which was important much later in projective geometry and number theory, although he did not invent it. According to Eutocius, Archytas solved the problem of doubling the cube (the so-called Delian problem) with the geometric construction of his eponymous Curve.
Before his time, Hippocrates of Chios had reduced this problem to finding mean proportionals. Archytas’ theory of proportions is treated in book VIII of Euclid’s “Elements,” where the construction for two proportional means is equivalent to the extraction of the cube root.
According to Diogenes Laërtius, this demonstration, which uses lines generated by moving figures to construct the two proportionals between magnitudes, was the first in which geometry was studied with concepts of mechanics. The graceful Archytas curve, which he used in his solution of the doubling the cube problem, is named after him.
A brilliant strategist of his time in Magna Graecia
Politically and militarily, Archytas appears to have been the dominant figure in Tarentum, in what was then Greater Greece in his generation, somewhat comparable to Pericles in Athens a half-century earlier.
Tarentum, known to the ancient Greeks as Taras (Greek: Τάρᾱς), was founded by colonists from Sparta. The city was named after its eponymous founder, who was supposedly a son of Poseidon. According to the myth, Taras was shipwrecked near the coast but was sent a dolphin by his father which he then rode to the shore where he founded the city.
The Tarentines elected him strategos, or “General,” seven years in a row—a move which required them to violate their own rule against successive appointments. He was allegedly undefeated as a general in Taranto’s campaigns against its southern Italian neighbors.
The Seventh Letter of Plato states that Archytas attempted to rescue Plato during his difficulties with Dionysius II of Syracuse.
In his public career, Archytas had a reputation for virtue as well as efficacy.
Some scholars have argued that the polymath, Archytas, may have served as a model for Plato’s “philosopher king,” and that he influenced Plato’s political philosophy as shown in The Republic and other works, especially as is obvious in his question “how does a society obtain good rulers like Archytas, instead of bad ones like Dionysius II?”
The crater called “Archytas” on the Moon was named in his honor by NASA.
Archytas’ eponymous curve
The Archytas curve is created by placing a semicircle (with a diameter of d) on the diameter of one of the two circles of a cylinder (which also has a diameter of d) such that the plane of the semicircle is at right angles to the plane of the circle and then rotating the semicircle about one of its ends in the plane of the cylinder’s diameter. This rotation will cut out a portion of the cylinder forming the Archytas curve.
Another way to think about this shape is that the Archytas curve is basically the result of cutting out a torus (a surface or solid) formed by rotating a hemisphere of diameter d out of a cylinder also of diameter d. A cone can go through the same procedures and also produce the Archytas curve. Archytas used his curve to determine the construction of a cube with a volume of one-third of that of a given cube.
Although a friend of Plato, after his invention of the curve, he was criticized for “contaminating” the purity of geometry with mechanics.
Plutarch says in his Symposiacs, Book VIII, Question 2: “And therefore Plato himself dislikes Eudoxus, Archytas, and Menaechmus for endeavoring to bring down the doubling the cube to mechanical operations; for by this means all that was good in geometry would be lost and corrupted, it falling back again to sensible things, and not rising upward and considering immaterial and immortal images, in which God being versed is always God.”
In music, Archytas’ greatest contribution was the creation of ratios that present an interrelated intervallic system. Archytas’ ratios were providentially preserved by Ptolemy.
Since much of ancient Greek musical theory is lost, this system, which was recorded in Plato’s Republic, offers valuable evidence about pre-Aristoxenian Greek music, especially about “harmonia” and the technique of transposition, which later were developed into complete systems of octave species and “tonoi,” to use the Greek terms.
Archaeologists in Italy have discovered a pre-Roman necropolis featuring 88 tombs. Credit: Nataliya Shestakova. CC BY 4.0/Wikimedia Commons/Nataliya Shestakova
A necropolis from the pre-Roman era, full of rich grave artifacts, has been discovered in southern Italy during excavations for the construction of an electricity power station, local authorities said.
What was Found in the Necropolis in Southern Italy?
The necropolis was discovered near Amorosi, around 50km (31 miles) away from Naples, during test excavations to construct an electric station linked to a high-speed train line, the authorities said in a statement.
The best-preserved archaeological material was unearthed in a burial area of roughly 13,000 square meters (139,930 sq feet) that has been dated to between the final stages of the Iron Age and the 8th-7th century BC and includes 88 tombs.
A pre-Roman necropolis characterised by rich grave artefacts was discovered in southern Italy during excavations for the construction of an electricity power station, local authorities said https://t.co/Xijxsfuxiupic.twitter.com/M0H198AUPI
Weapons were uncovered in the male tombs, while the female tombs included bronze ornaments like bracelets and pendants.
“The grave artifacts also included large quantities of vases of different shapes, often stacked on top of each other, usually laid at the feet of the deceased in a reserved space,” the local cultural heritage authority said.
“This archaeological discovery is of decisive importance for the history of our culture,” Amorosi Mayor Carmine Cacchillo said, as reported by Reuters.
Iron-Age Cultures of Italy
Many different cultures inhabited the land mass that eventually became Italy, during the late Iron Age. The most well-known of them being the Villanova culture, the name of which is derived from a locality in the frazione Villanova of Castenaso, Citta metropolitana di Bologna, in Emilia, Italy, where a necropolis was discovered by Giovanni Gozzadini in 1853-1856.
It succeeded the Proto-Villanovan culture during the Iron Age in the territory of Tuscany and northern Lazio, and spread in parts of Romagna, Campania, and Fermo in the Marche.
The main characteristic of the Villanovans (with some similarities with the so-called Proto-Villanovan period of the late Bronze Age) was the cremation burials, in which the deceased’s ashes were housed in bi-conical urns and buried.
The burial characteristics relate the Villanovan culture to the Central European Urnfield culture, and Hallstatt culture – which succeeded the Urnfield culture.
Other Iron Age peoples included the Latial culture, Este culture, Golasecca culture, Fritzens-Sanzeno culture, and the Camuni.
The Golasecca culture developed starting from the early Iron Age in the northwestern Po plain. It takes its name from Golasecca, a locality next to the Ticino where, in the early 19th century, abbot Giovanni Battista Giani of Italy, excavated its first findings – some fifty necropolis tombs with ceramics and metal objects.
Remains of the Golasecca culture span an area of around 20,000 square kilometers (7,700 miles) south to the Alps, between the Po, Sesia, and Serio rivers, dating from the ninth to the fourth century BC.
Their origins can be directly traced from that of Canegrate and to the so-called Proto-Golasecca culture (12th–10th centuries BC). The Golasecca culture traded with the Etruscans and the Hallstatt culture to the north, later reaching the Greek world and trading oil, wine, bronze objects, ceramics, and others, along with northern Europe, where they traded tin and amber from the Baltic coast.
A new company says that AI can help the teacher shortage crisis. Credit: Philipp Greindl, Ars Electronica / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
A company called 21st Century Digital Teaching (21C) is tackling the ongoing teacher shortage crisis in the UK and Europe. They are doing this by changing how students learn math and other important subjects.
To make this happen, 21C made a digital teaching app and platform for schools. They claim this app cuts down on the number of teachers needed by turning them into avatars. This means lessons can still happen even when there are not enough teachers.
The creators said that this app also offers a new way for students to do homework. It’s more engaging and allows teachers to keep track of how well students are doing using smart analytics tools on the platform, according to Euronews.
61 percent of UK teachers feel their work is unmanageable
Schools across Europe are struggling to find teachers, according to a recent report from Tes Schools Wellbeing. It has been found that 74 percent of school staff surveyed considered leaving education entirely in the past year.
Additionally, 61 percent of UK teachers feel overwhelmed by their workload. Almost half of the school staff (47 percent) reported lacking essential resources for their work.
Alan Judd, chairman and chief executive of the company, discussed the issue with Euronews. He pointed out the scarcity of qualified teachers, especially experienced math instructors, due to the rapid growth of school populations and retirements.
“They’re moving, they’re going to different places. So to have one-to-one teaching, that’s really behind the 21st Century,” said Alan.
Shorter lessons for efficient retention by students
The AI platform by 21C transforms lessons from real math teachers into short, easy-to-digest segments. Each segment lasts four to five minutes, aiming to match the shorter attention spans of students.
Martin Hoszowski, the company’s chief operating officer, explained that teenagers’ attention spans are decreasing. Therefore, they condensed lessons into shorter formats to keep students engaged.
He mentioned the challenge of compressing lessons into brief segments while ensuring they remain comprehensible and engaging for teenagers, as reported by Euronews.
Given the complex investment and regulatory environment in Europe, many UK and European businesses, both new and established, are considering relocating to the US.
While the primary reasons include access to greater capital, liquidity, and a broader investor base, differences in risk tolerance might also play a role in this trend, according to Euronews.
Judd mentioned the company’s plans to expand into the US market, noting the receptiveness of venture capitalists to pre-revenue ventures there.
“We intend to go into the US market, probably in 2025,” Judd said. “We’ll take about six to nine months to prepare the curriculum based upon the platform we have, which is versatile and can actually accommodate other languages and other systems.”
Lambatha candles made by John Athanasiou in Florida. Credit: John Athanasiou
Lambatha candles are an important part of the Greek Easter service that takes place on Holy Saturday, and one Greek, who moved to the US seven years ago, is now making and selling his own at a Greek market in Florida.
Two months ago, John Athanasiou took some time to learn how to make candles before opening his online store MyCandleLand, with the aim of selling Lambatha candles to the Greek community in Florida.
In Greece, it is traditional for godparents to gift their godchildren decorated (Lambatha) candles, to bring with them for the Greek Easter church service on Holy Saturday at midnight. Typically, the candles stay lit for the entire service and, afterward, are taken home while they are still lit for prayers to be said.
Sets of Lambatha candles made by John Athanasiou. Credit: John Athanasiou
Speaking to Greek Reporter, Athanasiou said: “The shop was an idea given to me by a person whose ideas I trust a lot, and it seemed pretty good to me. Also, it’s something traditional in Greece. I was given the idea in early 2023, and I opened the shop two months ago.”
The 41-year-old said he makes the Lambatha candles in a mold and sells them at the Eviva Greek market and Bakery in Florida. He added that he has an 18-year-old goddaughter in Greece. He hopes to give her a candle, too, for the Easter service.
The tradition of Lambatha candles in Greece
If the godparents do buy their godchildren a decorated Lambatha candle for Easter, they may ask what kind of decorations the children want, but no matter how the candles are decorated, they will need to have a long burning time.
Children hold the Lambatha candle during the church service. Throughout the years, the candles have become more and more elaborately decorated. Children keep their Lambatha throughout the year because the blessed candle which has been lit by the Holy Light on Resurrection night can be used in other special liturgies such as baptisms and weddings.
The Greek Orthodox Church is blessed with many rich, colorful, and symbolic Easter traditions, and Greeks have followed these customs for the important holiday faithfully for many centuries.
Ahead of the service on Holy Saturday, Holy Friday will see the Epitaphios (a wooden bier-like structure holding an icon of Jesus) and its procession in the streets around the church.
It is the saddest day of the entire year for Orthodox Christians because Christ is said to be lying in his tomb after his crucifixion.
On the morning of Holy Friday, women and children go to church and decorate the Epitaph. The faithful place hundreds of flowers all around the wooden arch, venerate the icon underneath it, and kneel and go under it to receive God’s grace.
In the evening, the “Epitaphios” procession takes place in every parish across Greece. The Epitaph is taken out of the church, and the procession begins with parishioners following as they solemnly hold lit beeswax candles. Church bells ring mournfully.
A new therapy, CAR T-cell therapy, destroys deadly brain tumors of glioblastoma in days. Credit: Ars Neurochirurgica / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0
A 72-year-old man, diagnosed with a very aggressive type of cancer known as glioblastoma, had brain scans that showed his tumor shrank significantly just days after treatment.
Two other individuals with a similar cancer diagnosis didn’t have such positive results, but the innovative treatment provides hope for people with this aggressive type of cancer. There is otherwise no known cure for glioblastoma.
Glioblastoma is one of the deadliest types of cancers. It starts from support cells in the central nervous system and quickly spreads, growing into cancerous masses. Moreover, up to 95 percent of people with glioblastoma don’t survive beyond five years, according to a study.
CAR T-cell therapy may help treat glioblastoma
Researchers at the Mass General Cancer Center in the US had the idea that a treatment called CAR T-cell therapy, which uses the patient’s own immune system, could work against glioblastoma.
This therapy, already in use for blood cancers, is efficient at finding and attacking cancer cells. The patient’s T-cells are extracted from their body, modified to spot specific markers on cancer cells, and then injected back into the body through infusion.
Oftentimes, with glioblastoma, there is a modified version of a protein called epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which could be a target for CAR T-cell treatment. However, glioblastoma has different forms, making it difficult to modify T-cells.
A novel CAR T-cell therapy directed at EGFRvIII with a secretable EGFR T-cell engager produced rapid responses in three patients with recurrent glioblastoma, but the responses were transient in two of the three. Read the Brief Report for the full study: https://t.co/kYAm6U9DR1pic.twitter.com/CoZ4ynAZC0
To resolve this, researchers have determined how to stimulate CAR T-cells to produce antibodies that look for normal EGFRs, too. These proteins aren’t usually in brain cells but are in cancer cells. Hence, it offers an additional way to spot their target, according to ScienceAlert.
In lab tests prior to human trials, the T-cell-engaging antibody molecule (TEAM) therapy showed promising results by gathering T-cells at the tumor site and bringing in more T-cells to help fight the cancer.
The INCIPIENT trial, a phase 1 clinical study, aimed to ascertain if this treatment was safe and could be a helpful treatment for glioblastoma.
Human trials on 3 patients diagnosed with glioblastoma
Only three patients were chosen for the trial, all diagnosed with a type of glioblastoma.
The first patient, a 74-year-old man, had tried regular medicine and radiation for his tumor but relapsed a year later. After receiving an infusion of CARv3-TEAM-E T-Cells, the treatment began producing results. Just a day later, an MRI scan showed the tumor had shrunk significantly.
Within a few months, the first patient had to undergo surgery yet again because the cancer had begun spreading once more despite the earlier progress detected in scans.
There was a similar situation with a 57-year-old woman who had a large glioblastoma tumor on the left side of her brain. Her tumor almost disappeared five days after the therapy, but ultimately, it started growing again just a month later.
The third participant, the 72-year-old, didn’t show any signs of the cancer returning after the treatment. The only side effects were a fever and some small nodules in the lungs, which quickly went away.
Because of these positive results, the researchers feel hopeful about continuing to study this new immunotherapy method, as reported by ScienceAlert.
The Dadia National Park known for its black vulture colony. Credit: Facebook/NECCA
Rare birds of prey have returned to the devastated from last year’s fires at Dadia National Park in north-eastern Greece, environmental groups say.
The Dadia National Park is Greece’s biggest Natura 2000 site, known for its black vulture colony and other big birds, such as the golden and white-tailed eagles.
The forest was devastated by the fire that burned about 73,000 hectares (730 square kilometers or 282 square miles). About half the forest area is estimated to have been burned.
Birds of prey have now returned to Dadia National Park
“The breeding season for birds of prey in the Dadia National Forest Park is in full swing,” it reports. It adds that all previously recorded populations of reproductive-age cinereous vultures have nested, on the remaining trees or several burned-out ones still standing. A couple was also spotted on one of several artificial nesting places put up by NECCA.
All birds came back to Dadia and did not seek other areas to nest, NECCA said. Credit: Facebook/NECCA
The vulture’s reproductive season started in January and hatchlings have already appeared. Other big birds have also nested and migratory birds are appearing, NECCA said.
A biologist for the agency said that they were surprised that all birds came back and did not seek other areas to nest. But, she added, it remains to be seen when the burned-out trees finally fall down and the landscape becomes more barren.
The Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park –as its official name– is one of the most important protected areas at national, European, and international scales.
It is one of the first areas in Greece to be declared as protected since a great deal of flora and fauna species found in the Balkan Peninsula, Europe and Asia coexist here.
The landscape mosaic formed by pine and oak forests, interrupted by clearings, pastures and fields is the ideal habitat for birds of prey.
Surveys have recorded at least sixty species of mammals, twelve species of amphibians, twenty-nine reptilian species, and over a hundred butterfly species. There are also anywhere between three to four hundred different plant species.
Australia honors fallen heroes of the Gallipoli campaign on the Greek island of Lemnos. Credit: Facebook/Australian Embassy, Greece
During the Gallipoli campaign in World War I, the Greek island of Lemnos played a significant role as a staging area and base of operations for the Allied forces, including the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC).
Lemnos was chosen as the main base for because of its strategic location at the entrance to the Dardanelles and its large deep harbor.
The Greek government led by Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos offered the Allies the use of Lemnos as a naval base and offered three divisions of Greek troops to help the Allies capture the Gallipoli peninsula.
Lemnos’ important role in the Gallipoli campaign for ANZAC troops
Lemnos served as a crucial logistical hub and a place for troops to rest and prepare before landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula, where the first major battle undertaken by ANZAC, and is often considered to have marked the birth of national consciousness in both countries.
Over 3,000 soldiers arrived in March 1915, using the island as a base to prepare and train for the upcoming landings at Gallipoli.
The island provided facilities for troop accommodation, medical care, supply depots, and communication centers. Lemnos also served as a base for naval operations supporting the landings at Gallipoli. Additionally, it served as a place for the assembly and training of troops before they were deployed to the front lines.
Field hospitals were set up to treat the wounded ANZAC soldiers evacuated from Gallipoli. The care provided by medical staff and the local Greek population was a welcome respite for those who endured the horrors of the campaign.
For years, Greek-Australians as well as Australian politicians and military officials have been making great efforts for the Greek island of Lemnos to be included in the celebrations of Anzac Day. Lemnos is in the northern part of the Aegean Sea.
The Australian Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Matt Keogh has confirmed a pledge announced the year before by former PM Scott Morrison of an A$4.9 million ($3.28 million) commitment towards the Lemnos Remembrance Trail.
“The history of Lemnos in the First World War is of significance to both Australians and Greeks, and we have been working closely with the Greek authorities to make this important project possible,” Keogh said.
Keogh also paid tribute to the sacrifice and dedication of the nurses and doctors who ran this important hospital base out of little more than tents and shacks.
New documentary on Lemnos and the Gallipoli campaign
A new film about Lemnos and its role in the Gallipoli Campaign premieres on Australian TV at prime time on Anzac Day, 25 April 2024.
The one-hour documentary, titled Anzac. Lemnos. 1915., features rare archival photographs and fascinating first-hand accounts, supported by contemporary views of the island and expert commentary.
For the first time, with rare photo archives and compelling personal accounts, this unique documentary explores a little-known setting during Australia’s first war that was crucial in the shaping of Australia’s modern identity, with fascinating new themes.
As Royal Australian Navy historian, John Perryman says, “No Lemnos, no Gallipoli.”
The oldest song to have survived in its entirety is a first-century A.D. Greek tune known as the “Seikilos Epitaph.”
The song, the melody of which is recorded, alongside its lyrics, in the ancient Greek musical notation, was found in 1883 engraved on a pillar (a stele) from the Hellenistic town of Tralles near present-day Aydın, Turkey, not far from Ephesus.
Although usually referred to as an epitaph, experts say that it is possible that it does not mark a tomb, but was merely a monument erected by Seikilos himself to commemorate his skill.
“I am a tombstone, an image,” reads an inscription. “Seikilos placed me here as an everlasting sign of deathless remembrance.”
The column also includes musical notation as well as a short set of lyrics that read: “While you live, shine / Have no grief at all / Life exists only for a short while / And time demands its toll.”
Lyrics and melody of the ancient Greek oldest song
The tombstone, or stele, was discovered in 1883 but then disappeared and was later rediscovered being used as a pedestal for a flowerpot. It is now housed in the National Museum of Denmark.
While you live, shine
have no grief at all
life exists only for a short while
and Time demands his due.
The last two surviving words on the tombstone itself are: Σεικίλος Εὐτέρ[πῃ], meaning “Seikilos to Euterpe”; hence, according to this reconstruction, the tombstone and the epigrams thereon were possibly dedicated by Seikilos to Euterpe, who was possibly his wife.
The tombstone has an inscription on it, which reads in Greek: Εἰκὼν ἤ λίθος εἰμί. τίθησί με Σεικίλος ἔνθα μνήμης ἀθανάτου σῆμα πολυχρόνιον. A free translation of this reads: “I am a tombstone, an image. Seikilos placed me here as a long-lasting sign of deathless remembrance.”
The inscription above each line of the lyrics, consists of letters and signs indicating the melody of the song:
While there are older examples of musical notation, such as the Hurrian Song, these are fragmented and unlike the complete engraving found on the Seikilos Epitaph.
The history of music is as old as humanity itself. Archaeologists have found primitive flutes made of bone and ivory dating back as far as 43,000 years, and it’s likely that many ancient musical styles have been preserved in oral traditions.
When it comes to specific songs, however, the oldest known examples are relatively more recent. The earliest fragment of musical notation is found on a 4,000-year-old Sumerian clay tablet, which includes instructions and tunings for a hymn honoring the ruler Lipit-Ishtar.
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.
