Lorenzo d'Alfonso, Associate Professor of Ancient Western Asian Archaeology and History, ISAW

Join scholar of the ancient world and New York University professor Lorenzo d’Alfonso for a discussion about the origins of the Hurrian hymn, the earliest-known example of musical notation.

Throughout the month of March the Hurrian hymn, also known as the oldest song in the world, is performed twice daily at the Guggenheim by museum staff as part of the exhibition ...circle through New York.

Free with museum admission. No registration required. This conversation takes place in the museum galleries and seating is limited.

Lorenzo d’Alfonso, PhD, is Associate Professor of Western Asian Archaeology and History at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University. His research focuses on the history of Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia from 1500–500 BCE, with a concentration on the peculiar features of the many local communities of these two regions as well as their role in providing an interface between Asia and the Mediterranean world. Since 2011 he has directed excavations of the Kinik Hoyuk site in Cappadocia, Turkey.

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World was founded in 2006 by a generous donation of the Leon Levy Foundation. The institute aims at creating a research environment that understands the ancient world as a whole, interconnected reality, thus bridging between the traditional disciplinary boundaries dividing the specialists of the single ancient cultures, and between the different fields that today participate in the reconstruction of the human past.