The Bagpipe Society

Dionysus, Reeds, Bags and Romanis

What started out as trying to make sense by joining up dots for the history of ritual dance ended up with a particular story about bagpipes. So bits of this are sketchy, and bits are possibly even over-thought. It is all tied up with words, oral history and musicians.

Beginnings

The Indus valley civilisation was going around 3000 BC. It was an urban civilisation with a complex written language which has not been translated. The culture included ritual urban musical processions and sat in the area of present-day Pakistan and India.

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