Dylan Gibson

BIOGRAPHY

Dylan Lawrence Gibson obtained his BAMus in Music Education at the University of Pretoria in 2014. During this time, he pursued Ancient Culture Studies as an elective, which introduced and sparked his interest in the fields of Assyriology, Philology, and Cuneiform Studies. He furthered his studies in Musicology at Stellenbosch University, earning a BMus (in 2018) and later a MMus degree (in 2021), with his thesis focused on re-examining ancient Akkadian music-theoretical cuneiform tablets. He is currently receiving tutelage in Akkadian with Dr. Daniel Sánchez Muños.

Dylan is an accredited music teacher (with UNISA) as well as a registered ‘Performing Arts Educator’ (SACE). He provides music theory and guitar tuition at PNXGlobal Performing Arts and numerous schools in the Helderberg area, Western Cape. In addition to teaching, Dylan volunteers at the non-profit organization Save Ancient Studies Alliance (SASA), where he previously served as an intern. He is also on the editorial advisory board, and is an active researcher, in Metal Music Studies

RESEARCH

Dylan’s doctoral study can be described as an interdisciplinary study between Assyriology and Musicology, sometimes referred to as Archaeomusicology. His PhD research is dedicated to transliterating and translating ancient instructional music notation inscribed in cuneiform. These clay tablets/fragments, excavated at Ugarit (modern-day Syria) dated to 1400 BCE, are collectively referred to as the Hurrian Hymns. The goal of his research is to provide a catalogue that includes tablaturisation-translations, aiming to decolonise the reliance on using a Western notational system or frame to interpret this ancient music. His intention is to make this three-thousand-year-old ancient music-mathematical information more accessible, to not only Assyriologists and Musicologists, but also non-specialists, with the aim of including others in the discussions concerning ancient Near-Eastern/Western Asian music.