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Sumer

(Encyclopedia)Sumer so͝o-mērˈēən [key]. The term Sumer is used today to designate the southern part of ancient Mesopotamia. From the earliest date of which there is any record, S Mesopotamia was occupied by a ...

Sumer Is Icumen In

(Encyclopedia)Sumer Is Icumen In so͝omˈər ĭs ēko͝omˈən ĭn [key] [M.E.,=summer has (literally: is) come in], an English rota or round composed c.1250. It is the earliest extant example of canon, of six part...

Eridu

(Encyclopedia)Eridu āˈrĭdo͞o [key], ancient city of Sumer, Mesopotamia, near the Euphrates, S of Ur (in present-day S Iraq). Excavations conducted from 1946 to 1949 revealed that Eridu was the earliest known se...

Akkad

(Encyclopedia)Akkad ăˈkăd, äˈkäd [key], ancient region of Mesopotamia, occupying the northern part of later Babylonia. The southern part was Sumer. In both regions city-states had begun to appear in the 4th m...

Lagash

(Encyclopedia)Lagash shĭrpo͝orˈlə [key], ancient city of Sumer, S Mesopotamia, now located at Telloh, SE Iraq. Lagash was flourishing by c.2400 b.c., but traces of habitation go back at least to the 4th millenn...

Ur

(Encyclopedia)Ur ûr [key], ancient city of Sumer, S Mesopotamia. The city is also known as Ur of the Chaldees. It was an important center of Sumerian culture (see Sumer) and is identified in the Bible as the home ...

Semite

(Encyclopedia)Semite sĕmˈīt, sēˈmīt [key], originally one of a people believed to be descended from Shem, son of Noah. Later the term came to include the following peoples: Arabs; the Akkadians of ancient Bab...

ground bass

(Encyclopedia)ground bass, melodic phrase used repeatedly as a bass line. In its earlier form, developed in the 13th and 14th cent., the ground or basso ostinato [Ital.,=obstinate] never varied in harmonization or ...

Bronze Age

(Encyclopedia)Bronze Age, period in the development of technology when metals were first used regularly in the manufacture of tools and weapons. Pure copper and bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, were used indiscr...

round

(Encyclopedia)round, in music, a perpetual canon on a tune that returns to its beginning in which all the voices enter at the unison or the octave. An example is Sumer Is Icumen In. Rounds were popular in 17th-cent...

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