Study on the Position of the Barbat Instrument in Ancient Iranian Musical Culture based on the Motifs of the Luxurious Metal Vessels of the Sassanid Era

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department Archaeology University of Kashan

Abstract

The art of music has always been considered in Iranian cultural periods. According to written documents from the Sassanid period (AD 224-651), such as the biographies of Ardeshir Babakan, the Assyric tree, and Khosrow and Ridag, it can be seen that music flourished during this period. Among the various instruments that existed during this period, it appears that the Barbat instrument had a special privilege. Perhaps the name of Bārbad, the most famous musician of this period, also has a connection with the name of Barbat. The aim of the research is to present samples of Sassanid period engraved metal vessels with Barbat motifs, to investigate the features of this musical instrument in terms of form and the musician's relationship with other motifs in each scene. The question of what was the motivation of the Sassanid artist in engraving the motif of playing the Barbat on luxury metal vessels is the main issue of the research. The collection of research data was done by the library method and their analysis was done by the descriptive-adaptive method. The result shows that during the Sassanid period, the motif of the Barbat instrument was engraved on various forms of metal vessels in various scenes, most of the scenes showing parties, banquets, and court celebrations, and in general, the Barbat instrument has held a special and exalted position in the musical culture of the Sasanian era.

Keywords

🔓 © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Tissaphernes Archaeological Research Group, Tehran, Iran. Open Access. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The ethical policy of Ancient Iranian Studies is based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and complies with International Committee of Ancient Iranian Studies Editorial Board codes of conduct. Readers, authors, reviewers and editors should follow these ethical policies once working with Ancient Iranian Studies. The ethical policy of Ancient Iranian Studies is liable to determine which of the typical research papers or articles submitted to the journal should be published in the concerned issue. For information on this matter in publishing and ethical guidelines please visit www.publicationethics.org.

References

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Ancient Iranian studies
Volume 2, Issue 4 - Serial Number 4
January 2023
Pages 41-54

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History

  • Receive Date: 10 December 2022
  • Accept Date: 20 December 2022

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