Image: Sumerian Clay Tablet MS 2340 Describing Musical Tuning
Photograph courtesy of The Schøyen Collection.
An early written record of music and musical instruments is from the 26th century BCE. It is written in Sumerian inscribed in clay and comes from ancient Sumer, in the Southern Mesopotamian valley in present-day Iraq.
See The Development of Flutes in Europe and Asia for more context about this image. See also [Hill-AE 2009].