Previous poll remade because I forgot a whole century the first time, this is what I get for doing this on mobile LOL
Think of the oldest song that you know by heart — can sing the melody and any words it has from memory, without looking it up. Search the name of it in Wikipedia, looking for when it was first documented with both the melody and (if applicable) lyrics you know, together. When is it ACTUALLY from? (If it’s way newer than you think, you can’t switch to an older song. Answer based on this one you initially THOUGHT was the oldest.)
20th century (1900s) or later
19th century (1800s)
18th century (1700s)
17th century (1600s)
15th-16th centuries (1400s-1500s)
13th-14th centuries (1200s-1300s)
11th-12th centuries (1000s-1100s)
First millennium CE (if you are not a musician, no you don't, go back)
It's the Seikilos Epitaph (circa 1st century CE), oldest complete melody found
I am a music historian with a PhD and the point of this poll is that the vast majority of people don’t actually know much music from pre-1500s or so, and most music that people think is ancient or medieval is actually far more recent.
There are no options before the first millennium CE because the Epitaph of Seikilos is the oldest complete work of music found anywhere in the world, and it's around 2000 years old. If you think you know something older than that, either only the text was written down (e.g. Biblical, Vedic and Greco-Roman hymns) or it only exists in fragments (e.g. the Hurrian hymns and Orestes stasimon). Which is to say, it does not count for this.
If it fits into a few of these potential time frames, pick the one that's considered the most likely. If historians genuinely have no fucking clue, THEN you can go back and try with another really old song.
Boost this one please! Now that I've finally got it right and the spread actually makes some sense, I'd like to see what happens when more people take it :)
