Urged to Interdisciplinary Approaches the Iconography of Music on the Reliefs of Angkor Wat KNUST, Martin

RESUMEN: About one millennium ago Angkor used to be one of the mightiest empires in the world. However, there is only scarce information available about its culture, because there are hardly any literal sources left except one contemporary report by a Chinese trader, Zhou Daguan, written at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Because of the almost total lack of "classical" written sources, the stone-carvings of musicians in Angkor could have a crucial function in research about this ancient culture. Of course, they can only be interpreted if results of other disciplines are taken into consideration, mainly those of ethnology and archeology. But also the research results from the disciplines are still quite limited, what implies that the music iconography could serve as a central part of Angkok research, which is per se urged to interdisciplinary approaches. Music iconography can shed light on the ethnic and social structures of Angkor as well as reconstruct the place music had in that society. The context in which musicians are represented on bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat are military ensembles. A musician is never depicted alone, but always within an ensemble of three to thirteen musicians, playing percussion and often brass and / or woodwind instruments.