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Name : Queen Puabi ’s lyre
What it is : A adorn wooden harmonica or lyre found in an elite grave
The 4,500-year-old lyre from Queen Puabi’s burial in Ur
Where it is from : The Royal Cemetery at Ur , in what is now southern Iraq
When it was made : Circa 2600 to 2400 B.C.
Related : Sutton Hoo helmet : A gold- and jewel - encrusted relic with tie-up to Beowulf and a suffer Anglo - Saxon business leader
What it assure us about the past :
This melodic instrument was found in the 1920s by British archeologist Sir Leonard Woolley during excavation at the Royal Cemetery at Ur , an ancient city inMesopotamiathat is now part of Iraq .
The artifact , call in Queen Puabi ’s lyre , is one of four lyre that Woolley discovered in one orotund , elect grave ; the others have been dub the halcyon lyre , the bull - lead lyre and the silver lyre . At about 4,500 year old , these harps are the world ’s previous stringed instruments ever discovered .
Queen Puabi ’s lyre was made of Grant Wood , most of which decayed over the millennia . During excavations , Woolley filled the low entrust by the moulder wood with plaster to conserve as much of the legal document as possible . The lyre , which is now on show at theBritish Museumin London , is a Reconstruction Period that consist of wooden panels , strings , 11 gold - headed pegs and the original laurel wreath .
Along the instrument panel , lapis lazuli ( a blue-blooded semiprecious Harlan F. Stone ) , eggshell and red limestone were put in bitumen — a sticky , black substance used as trench mortar . These innovation include a lion - headed bird of Jove , gazelle and leopard . A amber bull ’s head graced the front of the lyre , and its beard , hair and eyes were made of lapis lazuli .
As reconstructed , Queen Puabi ’s lyre is about 3.7 foot ( 1.1 meter ) magniloquent , 3.1 feet ( 1 m ) across the top , and just 2.8 inch ( 7 centimeter ) wide .
The attribution of the tomb toQueen Puabicomes from the find of acylinder sealwith her name on it . Her condition as a fag is assumed based on the opulence of the tomb , which was filled with gold and silver objects . Puabi ’s remains were discover on a political program smother by the remains of her presume attendants . minuscule else is known about her life , though .
Woolley also discovered the skeleton of a woman lying against the lyre and reported that her hand bones were incisively where the strings would have been . Because there were several frame in the tomb , though , it is not clear if this somebody was Queen Puabi herself or one of her attendants who likely had beensacrificed upon her decease .
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All four of the instrumental role that Woolley found are box seat lyres with similar decorations . Based on the positioning of thelyres in the tomb , the ancient Mesopotamians may have trifle these instruments at Queen Puabi ’s funeral .
In some ways , these ancient instruments were like modern guitars : Each cosmic string would have produced a different note of hand when plucked or a chord when multiple strings were plucked together , and they could be tuned by reduce and loosening the strings attach to the top pegleg .
These lyres from Ur show that the Mesopotamians had melodious applied science that was cutting bound at the time .
