The lyre ( / ˈ l aɪər / ) (from Greek λύρα and Latin lyra) is a stringed musical instrument that is classified by Hornbostel–Sachs as a member of the lute family of instruments . In organology , a lyre is considered a yoke lute , since it is a lute in which the strings are attached to a yoke that lies in the same plane as the sound table , and consists of two arms and a crossbar.
113-724: The lyre has its origins in ancient history . Lyres were used in several ancient cultures surrounding the Mediterranean Sea . The earliest known examples of the lyre have been recovered at archeological sites that date to c. 2700 BCE in Mesopotamia . The oldest lyres from the Fertile Crescent are known as the eastern lyres and are distinguished from other ancient lyres by their flat base. They have been found at archaeological sites in Egypt , Syria , Anatolia , and
226-428: A musical instrument which modifies the sound of the instrument, and helps transfer that sound to the surrounding air. Objects respond more strongly to vibrations at certain frequencies, known as resonances . The frequency and strength of the resonances of the body of a musical instrument have a significant impact on the tone quality it produces. The air inside the chamber has its own resonances, and these interact with
339-527: A Greek lyre appears in the famous sarcophagus of Hagia Triada (a Minoan settlement in Crete ). The sarcophagus was used during the Mycenaean occupation of Crete ( c. 1400 BCE ). The lyre of classical antiquity was ordinarily played by being strummed like a guitar or a zither , rather than being plucked with the fingers as with a harp. A pick called a plectrum was held in one hand, while
452-502: A date which is contested, with generally accepted evidence for the controlled use of fire dating to 780,000 years ago. Actual use of hearths first appears 400,000 years ago. Dates for the emergence of Homo sapiens (modern humans) range from 250,000 to 160,000 years ago, with the varying dates being based on DNA studies and fossils respectively. Some 50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa . They reached Australia about 45,000 years ago, southwestern Europe about
565-460: A family. The English word comes via Latin from the Greek . Hornbostel–Sachs classifies the lyre as a member of the lute-family of instruments which is one of the families under the chordophone classification of instruments. Hornbostel–Sachs divide lyres into two groups Bowl lyres ( 321.21 ), Box lyres ( 321.22 ). In organology , a lyre is considered a yoke lute , since it is a lute in which
678-520: A feature also found later in Samaria (c. 375–323 BCE). In contrast, thin lyres in Syria and Phoenicia (c. 700 BCE) were symmetrical in shape and had straight arms with a perpendicular yoke which formed the outline of a rectangle. The kinnor is an ancient Israelite musical instrument that is thought to be a type of thin lyre based on iconographic archaeological evidence. It is the first instrument from
791-520: A figure wearing a torc playing a seven-string lyre. The Germanic lyre is representative of a separate strand of lyre development. Appearing in warrior graves of the first millennium CE, these lyres differ from the lyres of the Mediterranean antiquity, by a long, shallow and broadly rectangular shape, with a hollow soundbox curving at the base, and two hollow arms connected across the top by an integrated crossbar or ‘yoke. Famous examples include
904-474: A flat base and bull's head on one side. The lyres of Ur are bull lyres excavated in ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq ), which date to 2500 BCE and are considered to be the world's oldest surviving stringed instruments . However, older pictorial evidence of bull lyres exist in other parts of Mesopotamia and Elam , including Susa . Thick lyres are a type of flat-based eastern lyre that comes from Egypt (2000–100 BCE) and Anatolia (c. 1600 BCE). The thick lyre
1017-479: A half millennia . It began with the incipient unification of Nile Valley polities around 3100 BC, traditionally under Menes . The civilisation of ancient Egypt was characterised primarily by intensive agricultural use of the fertile Nile Valley; the use of the Nile itself for transportation; the development of writing systems – first hieroglyphs and then later hieratic and other derived scripts – and literature ;
1130-496: A large kingdom at three different times in history. These are called the Old (20th to 18th centuries BC), Middle (14th to 11th centuries BC), and Neo-Assyrian (9th to 7th centuries BC) kingdoms, or periods. Mitanni was a Hurrian empire in northern Mesopotamia founded around 1500 BC. The Mitanians conquered and controlled Assyria until the 14th century BC while contending with Egypt for control of parts of modern Syria. Its capital
1243-589: A later emperor, Darius the Great , expanded the empire to the Indus River , creating the largest empire in the world to that date. But Darius and his son Xerxes I failed to expand into Greece , with expeditions in 490 and 480 BC eventually failing. The Achaemenid dynasty and empire fell to Alexander the Great by 330 BC, and after Alexander's death, much of the area previously ruled by the Cyrus and his successors
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#17327651175251356-451: A number of dynasties that peaked in power under the reign of Ashoka Maurya, one of India's most legendary and famous emperors. During the reign of Ashoka, the four dynasties of Chola , Chera , and Pandya were ruling in the South, while Devanampiya Tissa (250–210 BC) controlled Anuradhapura (now Sri Lanka ). These kingdoms, while not part of Ashoka's empire, were in friendly terms with
1469-522: A period often known as the Vedic period . Between 1500 and 500 BC these peoples spread throughout most of India and had begun to found small cities. Vedic society was characterized by the varna system which divided society into four broad castes, which were later elaborated. By the end of the Vedic period, this way of organizing society had become central to Indian society. Religion in the late Vedic period
1582-456: A tradition of bronze production and the manufacture of evermore refined bronze and iron objects, such as plows, axes and sickles with shaft holes, socketed arrows and spearheads and small ornamented items. By about 500 BCE, large and delicately decorated bronze drums of remarkable quality, weighing more than 70 kg (150 lb), were produced in the laborious lost-wax casting process. This industry of highly sophisticated metal processing
1695-470: A type of flat-based eastern lyre of immense size that typically required two players. Played from a standing position, the instrument stood taller than the instrumentalists. The oldest extent example of the instrument was found in the ancient city of Uruk in what is present day Iraq, and dates to c. 2500 BCE. Well preserved giant lyres dating to c. 1600 BCE have been found in Anatolia. The instrument reached
1808-488: A type of flat-based eastern lyre with a thinner soundbox where the sound hole is created by leaving the base of the resonator open. The earliest known example of the thin lyre dates to c. 2500 BCE in Syria . After this, examples of the thin lyre can be found throughout the Fertile Crescent . The thin lyre is the only one of the ancient eastern lyres that is still used in instrument design today among current practitioners of
1921-528: Is Harappan, after the first of its cities to be excavated, Harappa in the Pakistani province of Punjab . Harappan civilization grew out of the earlier agricultural communities as they evolved into cities. These communities created and traded jewelry, figurines, and seals that appear widely scattered throughout Mesopotamia, Afghanistan, and Iran. Chickens were domesticated in addition to the earlier crops and animals. They developed their own writing system,
2034-403: Is distinguished by a thicker sound box which allowed for the inclusion of more strings. These strings were held on a larger 'box-bridge' than the other type of eastern lyres, and the sound hole of the instrument was cut in the body of the lyre behind the box-bridge. While similar to the bull lyre in size, the thick lyre did not contain the head of an animal, but did depict images of animals on
2147-588: Is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history covers all continents inhabited by humans in the period 3000 BC – AD 500, ending with the expansion of Islam in late antiquity. The three-age system periodizes ancient history into the Stone Age , the Bronze Age , and the Iron Age , with recorded history generally considered to begin with
2260-574: Is the period before written history. Most of our knowledge of that period comes from the work of archaeologists. Prehistory is often known as the Stone Age , and is divided into the Paleolithic (earliest), Mesolithic , and Neolithic . The early human migrations in the Lower Paleolithic saw Homo erectus spread across Eurasia 1.8 million years ago. Evidence for the use of fire has been dated as early as 1.8 million years ago,
2373-520: Is yet to be confirmed with extensive survey work. With the help of archaeological excavations mainly by Susan and Roderick McIntosh , the site is known to have been occupied from 250 BC to AD 900. The city is believed to have been abandoned and moved where the current city is located due to the spread of Islam and the building of the Great Mosque of Djenné . Previously, it was assumed that advanced trade networks and complex societies did not exist in
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#17327651175252486-604: The Byzantine lyra . After the bow made its way into Europe from the Middle-East , it was applied to several species of those lyres that were small enough to make bowing practical. The dates of origin and other evolutionary details of the European bowed lyres continue to be disputed among organologists, but there is general agreement that none of them were the ancestors of modern orchestral bowed stringed instruments, as once
2599-569: The Chaldeans in 614 BC. The Achaemenid Empire was founded by Cyrus the Great , who first became king of the Persians, then conquered the Medes, Lydia , and Babylon by 539 BC. The empire built on earlier Mesopotamian systems of government to govern their large empire. By building roads, they improved both the ability to send governmental instructions throughout their lands as well as improving
2712-763: The Congo River and into the Great Lakes area. By AD 1000 these groups had spread throughout all of southern Africa south of the equator. Iron metallurgy and agriculture spread along with these peoples, with the cultivation of millet, oil palms, sorghum, and yams as well as the use of domesticated cattle, pigs, and sheep. These technologies helped increase population, and settled communities became common in sub-Saharan Africa except in deserts or heavy forests. Paleolithic tools have been discovered in India dating to 200,000 years ago, and Neolithic sites are known from near
2825-572: The Fertile Crescent ( Mesoptamia ) in what is present day Syria, Anatolia, the Levant and Egypt. The eastern lyres all contain sound boxes with flat bases. They are the oldest lyres with iconographical evidence of their existence, such as depictions of the eastern lyre on pottery, dating back to 2700 BCE. While flat-based lyres originated in the East, they were also later found in the West after 700 BCE. By
2938-482: The Hellenistic period (c. 330 BCE) what was once a clearly divided use of flat-based lyres in the East and round-based lyres in the West had disappeared, as trade routes between the East and the West dispersed both kinds of instruments across more geographic regions. Eastern lyres are divided into four main types: bull lyres, thick lyres, thin lyres and giant lyres. Bull lyres are a type of eastern lyre that have
3051-681: The Indus Valley dating to around 8000 BC. Agriculture began in the Indus Valley around 7000 BC, and reached the Ganges Valley by 3000 BC. Barley , cotton , and wheat were grown and the population had domesticated cattle, goats, and sheep. The Indus Valley Civilisation developed around 3000 BC in the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra river valleys of eastern Afghanistan , Pakistan, and western India. Another name for this civilisation
3164-495: The Indus Valley script , which is still mostly undeciphered. The exact structure of society and the way the cities were governed is not known. By about 1600 BC, the Indus Valley culture had abandoned many of their cities, including Mohenjo-Daro . The exact reason for this decline is not known. Indo-European speaking peoples began to spread into India about 1500 BC. The Rigveda , in Sanskrit , dates to this period and begins
3277-639: The Levant . The round lyre or the Western lyre also originated in Syria and Anatolia, but was not as widely used and eventually died out in the east c. 1750 BCE. The round lyre, so called for its rounded base, reappeared in ancient Greece c. 1700–1400 BCE, and then later spread throughout the Roman Empire . This lyre served as the origin of the European lyre known as the Germanic lyre or rotte that
3390-587: The Maccabean revolt led to independence during Hellenistic period until Roman conquest . Phoenicia was an ancient civilisation centered in the north of ancient Canaan , with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern-day Lebanon , Syria and Israel. Phoenician civilisation was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean between the period of 1550 to 300 BC. One Phoenician colony, Carthage , ruled an empire in
3503-802: The Maritime Jade Road , a jade trade network, in Southeast Asia which existed in Taiwan and the Philippines for 3,000 years from 2000 BCE to 1000 CE. The trade was established by links between the indigenous peoples of Taiwan and the Philippines, and later included parts of Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and other areas in Southeast Asia (known as the Sa Huynh - Kalanay Interaction Sphere). Lingling-o artifacts are one of
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3616-603: The Maurya Empire . An alliance existed between Devanampiya Tissa and Ashoka of India, who sent Buddhist missionaries to Sri Lanka. Most of North India was reunited under the Gupta Empire beginning under Chandragupta I around AD 320. Under his successors the empire spread to include much of India except for the Deccan Plateau and the very south of the peninsula. This was a period of relative peace, and
3729-576: The Neolithic Revolution , which was in full progress. While in 10,000 BC, the world population stood at 2 million, it rose to 45 million by 3000 BC. By the Iron Age in 1000 BC, the population had risen to 72 million. By the end of the ancient period in AD 500, the world population is thought to have stood at 209 million. In 10,500 years, the world population increased by 100 times. Prehistory
3842-778: The Nile Delta in the north, as far south as Jebel Barkal at the Fourth Cataract of the Nile. Extensions to the geographical range of ancient Egyptian civilisation included, at different times, areas of the southern Levant , the Eastern Desert and the Red Sea coastline, the Sinai Peninsula , and the Western Desert (focused on the several oases ). Ancient Egypt developed over at least three and
3955-688: The Old Kingdom , which saw pyramid building on a large scale. After 2100 BC, the Old Kingdom dissolved into smaller states during the First Intermediate Period , which lasted about 100 years. The Middle Kingdom began around 2000 BC with the reunification of Egypt under pharoes ruling from Thebes . The Middle Kingdom ended with the conquest of northern Egypt by the Hyksos around 1650 BC. The Hyksos were expelled from Egypt and
4068-827: The Pitcairns , the Kermadec Islands , and the Norfolk Islands were also formerly settled by Austronesians but later abandoned. There is also putative evidence, based in the spread of the sweet potato , that Austronesians may have reached South America from Polynesia, where they might have traded with the Indigenous peoples of the Americas . Austronesians established prehistoric maritime trade networks in Island Southeast Asia, including
4181-797: The Seleucid Empire . Parthia had many wars with the Romans, but it was rebellions within the empire that ended it in the 3rd century AD. The Sasanian Empire began when the Parthian Empire ended in AD 224. Their rulers claimed the Achaemenids as ancestors and set up their capital at Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia. Their period of greatest military expansion occurred under Shapur I , who by the time of his death in AD 272 had defeated Roman imperial armies and set up buffer states between
4294-496: The Zapotec civilization . The ancient Near East is considered the cradle of civilization . It was the first to practice intensive year-round agriculture; created one of the first coherent writing systems , invented the potter's wheel and then the vehicular wheel , created the first centralized governments , law codes and empires, as well as displaying social stratification , slavery, and organized warfare. It began
4407-415: The phorminx and kitharis . However, both of these terms have not had uniform meaning across time, and their use during Homer's time was later altered. Today, scholars divide instruments referred to as kitharis into two subgroups, the round-based cylinder kithara and the flat-based concert kithara. In Ancient Greece , recitations of lyric poetry were accompanied by lyre playing. The earliest picture of
4520-466: The solid body electric guitar or the electric violin , and the piano which uses only a sound board instead. Drumhead lutes such as the banjo or erhu have at least one open end of the sound box covered with animal skin (or a skin-like acrylic material). Open back banjos are normally used for clawhammer and frailing, while those used for bluegrass have the back covered with a resonator. In some arrangements, loudspeakers are also mounted on
4633-575: The Assyrians, who conquered Israel in 722 BC. The Neo-Babylonian Empire did the same to Judah in 586. After both conquests, the conquering forces deported many of the inhabitants to other regions of their respective empires. Following the fall of Babylon to the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great allowed the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem , and some of the exiles from Judah returned to Judea , where they remained under Persian rule until
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4746-481: The Bronze Age. The start and end of the three ages vary between world regions. In many regions the Bronze Age is generally considered to begin a few centuries prior to 3000 BC, while the end of the Iron Age varies from the early first millennium BC in some regions to the late first millennium AD in others. During the time period of ancient history, the world population was already exponentially increasing due to
4859-650: The Egyptians as a possible challenge to their hegemony , but an ethnic group rather than an organised state. Israel had emerged by the middle of the 9th century BC, when the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III named " Ahab the Israelite" among his enemies at the battle of Qarqar (853). Judah emerged somewhat later than Israel, probably during the 9th century BC, but the subject is one of considerable controversy. Israel came into conflict with
4972-518: The Fertile Crescent, alongside the first evidence for agriculture. Other animals, such as pigs and poultry , were later domesticated and used as food sources. Cattle and water buffalo were domesticated around 7000 BC and horses , donkeys , and camels were domesticated by about 4000 BC. All of these animals were used not only for food, but to carry and pull people and loads, greatly increasing human ability to do work. The invention of
5085-613: The Gupta rulers generally left administration in local rulers. The Gupta Empire was weakened and ultimately ruined by the raids of Hunas (a branch of the Hephthalites emanating from Central Asia), and the empire broke up into smaller regional kingdoms by the end of the fifth century AD. India would remain fragmented into smaller states until the rise of the Mughal Empire in the 1500s. The Neolithic period of Southeast Asia
5198-819: The Iron Age industrial settlement in the Ramsau valley at Dürrnberg , Austria. Possible further wooden tuning pegs have been found in Glastonbury in Somerset in England and Biskupin in Poland. The remains of what is thought to be the bridge of a 2300-year-old lyre were discovered on the Isle of Skye , Scotland in 2010. In 1988, a stone bust from the 2nd or 1st century BCE was discovered in Brittany, France which depicts
5311-543: The Malayan-Indonesian " thalassian " zone shared these characteristics with Indochinese polities like the Pyu city-states in the Irrawaddy River valley, the Văn Lang kingdom in the Red River Delta and Funan around the lower Mekong . Văn Lang, founded in the 7th century BCE, endured until 258 BCE under the Hồng Bàng dynasty , as part of the Đông Sơn culture that sustained a dense and organised population that produced an elaborate Bronze Age industry. Intensive wet-rice cultivation in an ideal climate enabled
5424-399: The Middle East. Egypt developed its own system of hieroglyphs by about 3200 BC. By 2800 BC the Indus Valley Civilization had developed its Indus script , which remains undeciphered. Chinese Characters were independently developed in China during the Shang dynasty in the form of the Oracle Bone Script dating to the period 1600 to 1100 BC. Writing in Mesoamerica dates to 600 BC with
5537-408: The Nubians had created a new kingdom further south, known as the Kingdom of Kush , centred on the upper Nile with a capital at Kerma . In the Egyptian New Kingdom period, Kush once more was conquered by Egypt. However, by 1100 BC a new kingdom of Kush had formed, with a capital at Napata . Nubian rulers conquered Egypt around 760 BC and retained control for about a century. The Kingdom of Aksum
5650-472: The Pacific Islands to successfully retain rice cultivation. Palau and Yap were settled by separate voyages by 1000 BCE. Another important migration branch was by the Lapita culture , which rapidly spread into the islands off the coast of northern New Guinea and into the Solomon Islands and other parts of coastal New Guinea and Island Melanesia by 1200 BCE. They reached the islands of Fiji , Samoa , and Tonga by around 900 to 800 BCE. This remained
5763-401: The Sasanians and Roman Empires. After Shapur, the Sasanians were under more pressure from the Kushans to their east as well as the Roman then Byzantine Empire to its west. However, the Sasanians rebuilt and founded numerous cities and their merchants traveled widely and introduced crops such as sugar, rice, and cotton into the Iranian plateau. But in AD 651, the last Sassanid emperor was killed by
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#17327651175255876-411: The Western Mediterranean until being defeated by Rome in the Punic Wars . The Phoenicians invented the Phoenician alphabet , the forerunner of the modern alphabet still in use today. The history of Pre-Islamic Arabia before the rise of Islam in the AD 630s is not known in great detail. Archaeological exploration in the Arabian Peninsula has been sparse; indigenous written sources are limited to
5989-492: The ability of their military forces to be deployed rapidly. Increased trade and upgraded farming techniques increased wealth, but also exacerbated inequalities between social classes. The empire's location at the centre of trading networks spread its intellectual and philosophical ideas throughout a wide area, and its religion, while not itself spreading far, had an impact on later religions such as Christianity , Islam , and Judaism . Cyrus' son Cambyses II conquered Egypt, while
6102-410: The ancient Greeks to Egyptian box instruments reveals the apparent similarities recognized by Greeks themselves. The cultural peak of ancient Egypt , and thus the possible age of the earliest instruments of this type, predates the 5th century classic Greece . This indicates the possibility that the lyre might have existed in one of Greece's neighboring countries, either Thrace , Lydia , or Egypt , and
6215-405: The ancient history that were extant in the Aegean , Greece and Italy . They initially contained only round rather than flat bases; but by the Hellenistic period both constructs of lyre could be found in these regions. Like the flat-based Eastern lyres, the round-based lyre also originated in northern Syria and southern Anatolia in the 3rd millennium BCE. However, this round-based construction of
6328-433: The archipelago of the Philippines , intermingling with the earlier Australo-Melanesian population who had inhabited the islands since about 23,000 years earlier. Over the next thousand years, Austronesian peoples migrated southeast to the rest of the Philippines, and into the islands of the Celebes Sea and Borneo. From southwestern Borneo, Austronesians spread further west in a single migration event to both Sumatra and
6441-442: The arms or yoke of the instrument. Like the bull lyre, the thick lyre did not use use a plectrum but was plucked by hand. While the clearest examples of the thick lyre are extant to archaeological sites in Egypt and Anatolia, similar large lyres with thicker soundboxes have been found in Mesopotamia (1900–1500 BCE). However, these Mesopotamia lyres lack the box-bridge found in the instruments from Egypt and Anatolia. Thin lyres are
6554-406: The capital of the Akkadian Empire. Despite an extensive search, the precise site has never been found. Akkad reached the height of its power between about 2330 and 2150 BC, following the conquests of King Sargon of Akkad . Through the spread of Sargon's empire, the language of Akkad, known as Akkadian from the city, spread and replaced the Sumerian language in Mesopotamia and eventually by 1450 BC
6667-407: The casting of iron with molds and then hammering it which enabled weapons and tools to be made stronger and also cheaper. Although chariots had been used previously, the use of spoked wheels allowed the chariots to be much lighter and more maneuverable. In 1274 BC the Hittites clashed with the Egyptians at the Battle of Kadesh , where both sides claimed victory. In 1207 the Hittite capital of Hattusa
6780-423: The coastal regions of southern Vietnam, becoming the ancestors of the speakers of the Malayic and Chamic branches of the Austronesian language family. Soon after reaching the Philippines, Austronesians colonized the Northern Mariana Islands by 1500 BCE or even earlier, becoming the first humans to reach Remote Oceania . The Chamorro migration was also unique in that it was the only Austronesian migration to
6893-484: The empire was Aksum , now in northern Ethiopia. The Nok culture appeared in Nigeria around 1000 BC and mysteriously vanished around AD 200. The civilisation's social system is thought to have been highly advanced. The Nok civilisation was considered to be the earliest sub-Saharan producer of life-sized Terracotta which have been discovered by archaeologists. The Nok also used iron smelting that may have been independently developed. The civilisation of Djenné-Djenno
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#17327651175257006-438: The entire territory. Among large, thin-walled terracotta jars, ornamented and colorized cooking pots, glass items, jade earrings and metal objects were deposited near the rivers and along the coast. Around 3000 to 1500 BCE, a large-scale migration of Austronesians , known as the Austronesian expansion began from Taiwan . Population growth primarily fueled this migration. These first settlers settled in northern Luzon , in
7119-486: The expanding Islamic Arabs. The Hittites first came to Anatolia about 1900 BC and during the period 1600-1500 they expanded into Mesopotamia where they adopted the cuneiform script to their Indo-European language. By 1200 their empire stretched to Phoenicia and eastern Anatolia . They improved two earlier technologies from Mesopotamia and spread these new techniques widely – improved iron working and light chariots with spoked wheels in warfare. The Hittites introduced
7232-461: The farming communities to produce a regular crop surplus that was used by the ruling elite to raise, command and pay work forces for public construction and maintenance projects such as canals and fortifications. The earliest known evidence of copper and bronze production in Southeast Asia was found at Ban Chiang in north-east Thailand and among the Phùng Nguyên culture of northern Vietnam around 2000 BCE. The Đông Sơn culture established
7345-409: The finger gave the string a greater vibrating length, thereby producing a tone lower in pitch. This is the principle on which the modern violin and guitar work. The term is also used metaphorically to refer to the work or skill of a poet, as in Shelley's "Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is" or Byron's "I wish to tune my quivering lyre, / To deeds of fame, and notes of fire". Over time,
7458-427: The fingers of the free hand silenced the unwanted strings. A classical lyre has a hollow body or sound-chest (also known as soundbox or resonator), which, in ancient Greek tradition, was made out of turtle shell. Extending from this sound-chest are two raised arms, which are sometimes hollow, and are curved both outward and forward. They are connected near the top by a crossbar or yoke. An additional crossbar, fixed to
7571-512: The furthest extent of the Austronesian expansion into Polynesia until around 700 CE, when there was another surge of island colonization. It reached the Cook Islands , Tahiti , and the Marquesas by 700 CE; Hawaii by 900 CE; Rapa Nui by 1000 CE; and New Zealand by 1200 CE. For a few centuries, the Polynesian islands were connected by bidirectional long-distance sailing, with the exception of Rapa Nui, which had limited further contact due to its isolated geographical location. Island groups like
7684-425: The height of its popularity in Ancient Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten (c. 1353—1336 BCE). A giant lyre found in the ancient city of Susa (c. 2500 BCE) is suspected to have been played by only a single instrumentalist, and giant lyres in Egypt dating from the Hellenistic period most likely also required only a single player. Western lyres, sometimes referred to as round-based lyres, are lyres from
7797-509: The herd of cattle for the lyre. Hence, the creation of the lyre is attributed to Hermes. Other sources credit it to Apollo himself. Some of the cultures using and developing the lyre were the Aeolian and Ionian Greek colonies on the coasts of Asia (ancient Asia Minor , modern day Turkey ) bordering the Lydian empire. Some mythic masters like Musaeus , and Thamyris were believed to have been born in Thrace , another place of extensive Greek colonization. The name kissar ( cithara ) given by
7910-432: The instrument. As a means of support, players of the thin lyre wear a sling around the left wrist which is also attached to the base of the lyre's right arm. It is played using a plectrum or pic to strike the strings; a technique later used by the Greeks on the western lyres. There are several regional variations in the design of thin lyres. The Egyptian thin lyre was characterized by arms that bulged outwards asymmetrically;
8023-445: The land was reunited in the New Kingdom around 1550 BC. This period lasted until about 1000 BC, and saw Egypt expand its borders into Palestine and Syria. The Third Intermediate Period was marked by the rule of priests as well as the conquest of Egypt by Nubian kings and then later Assyria, Persia, and Macedonians. The Ta-Seti kingdom in Nubia to the south of Egypt was conquered by Egyptian rulers around 3100 BC, but by 2500 BC
8136-618: The lyre family mentioned in the Old Testament . Its exact identification is unclear, but in the modern day it is generally translated as "harp" or "lyre", and associated with a type of lyre depicted in Israelite imagery, particularly the Bar Kochba coins. It has been referred to as the "national instrument" of the Jewish people, and modern luthiers have created reproduction lyres of the "kinnor" based on this imagery. Giant lyres are
8249-707: The lyre from the ship burial at Sutton Hoo , and the decayed lyre discovered in silhouette at the Prittlewell royal Anglo-Saxon burial in Essex. The waterlogged lyre recovered from a grave at Trossingen , Germany, in 2001 is the best-preserved example found so far. Some instruments called "lyres" were played with a bow in Europe and parts of the Middle East , namely the Arabic rebab and its descendants, including
8362-494: The lyre was less common than its flat-based counterparts in the east, and by c. 1750 BCE the instrument had died out completely in this region. The round-based lyre re-appeared in the West in Ancient Greece where it was sole form of lyre used between 1400 BCE and 700 BCE. Like the eastern flat-based lyre, the western round-based lyre also had several sub-types. Homer described two different western lyres in his writings,
8475-467: The many inscriptions and coins from southern Arabia. Existing material consists primarily of written sources from other traditions (such as Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, etc.) and oral traditions later recorded by Islamic scholars. A number of small kingdoms existed in Arabia from around AD 100 to perhaps about AD 400. Carthage was founded around 814 BC by Phoenician settlers. Ancient Carthage
8588-403: The musicians of the archaic period Olympus and Terpander , that they used only three strings to accompany their recitation; but there is no evidence for or against this dating from that period. The earliest known lyre had four strings, tuned to create a tetrachord or series of four tones filling in the interval of a perfect fourth. By doubling the tetrachord a lyre with seven or eight strings
8701-684: The name in the wider Hellenic space came to be used to label mostly bowed lutes such as the Byzantine lyra , the Pontic lyra , the Constantinopolitan lyra , the Cretan lyra , the lira da braccio , the Calabrian lira , the lijerica , the lyra viol , the lirone . Ancient history Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity . The span of recorded history
8814-533: The notable archeological finds originating from the Maritime Jade Road. During the operation of the Maritime Jade Road, the Austronesian spice trade networks were also established by Islander Southeast Asians with Sri Lanka and Southern India by around 1000 to 600 BCE. Sound box A sound box or sounding box (sometimes written soundbox ) is an open chamber in the body of
8927-442: The organisation of collective projects such as the pyramids ; trade with surrounding regions; and a polytheistic religious tradition that included elaborate funeral customs including mummification . Overseeing these activities were a socio-political and economic elite under the figure of a (semi)-divine ruler from a succession of ruling dynasties . Ancient Egyptian history is divided across various periods, beginning with
9040-472: The population to settle in one place instead of migrating after crops and herds. It also allowed for a much greater population density, and in turn required an extensive labour force and division of labour. This organization led to the necessity of record keeping and the development of writing. Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq ), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi created an empire out of
9153-567: The region in the former savannah of the Sahara. Its inhabitants fished and grew millet. It has been found that the Soninke of the Mandé peoples were responsible for constructing such settlements. Around 300 BC, the region became more desiccated and the settlements began to decline, most likely relocating to Koumbi Saleh. From the type of architecture and pottery, it is believed that Tichit was related to
9266-634: The region until the arrival of traders from Southwest Asia . However, sites such as Djenné-Djenno disprove this, as these traditions in West Africa flourished long before. Towns similar to that at Djenne-Jeno also developed at the site of Dia, also in Mali along the Niger River , from around 900 BC. Dhar Tichitt and Oualata were prominent among the early urban centres, dated to 2000 BC, in present-day Mauritania. About 500 stone settlements littered
9379-442: The resonances of the body, altering the resonances of the instrument as a whole. The sound box typically adds resonances at lower frequencies, enhancing the lower- frequency response of the instrument. The distinctive sound of an instrument with a sound box owes a lot to the alteration made to the tone . A sound box is found in most string instruments . The most notable exceptions are some electrically amplified instruments like
9492-588: The same time period. Cultivation of millet, rice , and legumes began around 7000 BC in China . Taro cultivation in New Guinea dates to about 7000 BC also with squash cultivation in Mesoamerica perhaps sharing that date. Animal domestication began with the domestication of dogs , which dates to at least 15,000 years ago, and perhaps even earlier. Sheep and goats were domesticated around 9000 BC in
9605-618: The same time, southeastern Europe and Siberia around 40,000 years ago, and Japan about 30,000 years ago. Humans migrated to the Americas about 15,000 years ago. Evidence for agriculture emerges in about 9000 BC in what is now eastern Turkey and spread through the Fertile Crescent . Settlement at Göbekli Tepe began around 9500 BC and may have the world's oldest temple. The Nile River Valley has evidence of sorghum and millet cultivation starting around 8000 BC and agricultural use of yams in Western Africa perhaps dates to
9718-412: The simple plough by 6000 BC further increased agricultural efficiency. Metal use in the form of hammered copper items predates the discovery of smelting of copper ores , which happened around 6000 BC in western Asia and independently in eastern Asia before 2000 BC. Gold and silver use dates to between 6000 and 5000 BC. Alloy metallurgy began with bronze in about 3500 BC in Mesopotamia and
9831-436: The sound-chest, makes the bridge, which transmits the vibrations of the strings. The deepest note was that closest to the player's body; since the strings did not differ much in length, more weight may have been gained for the deeper notes by thicker strings, as in the violin and similar modern instruments, or they were tuned by having a slacker tension . The strings were of gut (animal intestines). They were stretched between
9944-562: The string. The last of the bowed lyres with a fingerboard was the "modern" ( c. 1485–1800 ) Welsh crwth . It had several predecessors both in the British Isles and in Continental Europe. Pitch was changed on individual strings by pressing the string firmly against the fingerboard with the fingertips. Like a violin, this method shortened the vibrating length of the string to produce higher tones, while releasing
10057-490: The strings are attached to a yoke that lies in the same plane as the sound table , and consists of two arms and a crossbar. There is evidence of the development of many forms of lyres from the period 2700 BCE through 700 BCE. Lyres from the ancient world are divided by scholars into two separate groups, the eastern lyres and the western lyres, which are defined by patterns of geography and chronology. Eastern lyres, also known as flat-based lyres, are lyres which originated in
10170-420: The strings as being damped by the fingers of the left hand of the player, after having been struck by the plectrum held in the right hand. According to ancient Greek mythology , the young god Hermes stole a herd of sacred cows from Apollo. In order not to be followed, he made shoes for the cows which were facing backwards, making it appear that the animals had walked in the opposite direction. Apollo, following
10283-736: The study of the stars and the sciences of astronomy and mathematics. Mesopotamia is the site of some of the earliest known civilisations in the world. Agricultural communities emerged in the area with the Halaf culture around 8000 BC and continued to expand through the Ubaid period around 6000 BC. Cities began in the Uruk period (4000–3100 BC) and expanded during the Jemdet Nasr (3100–2900 BC) and Early Dynastic (2900–2350 BC) periods. The surplus of storable foodstuffs created by this economy allowed
10396-439: The subsequent Ghana Empire. Old Jenne (Djenne) began to be settled around 300 BC, producing iron and with sizeable population, evidenced in crowded cemeteries. The inhabitants and creators of these settlements during these periods are thought to have been ancestors of the Soninke people. Peoples speaking precursors to the modern-day Bantu languages began to spread throughout southern Africa, and by 2000 BC they were expanding past
10509-524: The territories of the former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad . The Neo-Babylonian Empire , or Chaldea , was Babylonia from the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II , it conquered Jerusalem . This empire also created the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the still-surviving Ishtar Gate as architectural embellishments of its capital at Babylon. Akkad was a city and its surrounding region near Babylon. Akkad also became
10622-455: The trails, could not follow where the cows were going. Along the way, Hermes slaughtered one of the cows and offered all but the entrails to the gods. From the entrails and a tortoise / turtle shell , he created the Lyre. Apollo, figuring out it was Hermes who had his cows, confronted the young god. Apollo was furious, but after hearing the sound of the lyre, his anger faded. Apollo offered to trade
10735-437: The yoke and bridge, or to a tailpiece below the bridge. There were two ways of tuning: one was to fasten the strings to pegs that might be turned, while the other was to change the placement of the string on the crossbar; it is likely that both expedients were used simultaneously. Lyres were used without a fingerboard , no Greek description or representation having ever been met with that can be construed as referring to one. Nor
10848-540: Was Washukanni , whose precise location has not been determined by archaeologists. The Medes and Persians were peoples who had appeared in the Iranian plateau around 1500 BC. Both peoples spoke Indo-European languages and were mostly pastoralists with a tradition of horse archery. The Medes established their own Median Empire by the 6th century BC, having defeated the Neo-Assyrian Empire with
10961-446: Was a bow possible, the flat sound-board being an insuperable impediment. The pick, or plectrum, however, was in constant use. It was held in the right hand to set the upper strings in vibration; when not in use, it hung from the instrument by a ribbon. The fingers of the left hand touched the lower strings (presumably to silence those whose notes were not wanted). Before Greek civilization had assumed its historic form (c. 1200 BCE), there
11074-535: Was a city-state that ruled an empire through alliances and trade influence that stretched throughout North Africa and modern Spain . At the height of the city's influence, its empire included most of the western Mediterranean. The empire was in a constant state of struggle with the Roman Republic , which led to a series of conflicts known as the Punic Wars . After the third and final Punic War , Carthage
11187-492: Was an important trading nation in northeastern Africa centered in present-day Eritrea and northern Ethiopia , it existed from approximately AD 100 to 940, growing from the Iron Age proto-Aksumite period around the 4th century BC to achieve prominence by the 1st century AD. The Kingdom of Aksum at its height by the early 6th-century AD extended through much of modern Ethiopia and across the Red Sea to Arabia. The capital city of
11300-445: Was characterized by several migrations into Mainland and Island Southeast Asia from southern China by Austronesian , Austroasiatic , Kra-Dai and Hmong-Mien -speakers. Territorial principalities in both Insular and Mainland Southeast Asia, characterized as "agrarian kingdoms", developed an economy by around 500 BCE based on surplus crop cultivation and moderate coastal trade of domestic natural products. Several states of
11413-541: Was destroyed and then occupied by Roman forces. Nearly all of the territory held by Carthage fell into Roman hands. Ancient Egypt was a long-lived civilisation geographically located in north-eastern Africa. It was concentrated along the middle to lower reaches of the Nile River, reaching its greatest extent during the 2nd millennium BC, which is referred to as the New Kingdom period. It reached broadly from
11526-455: Was developed independent of Chinese or Indian influence. Historians relate these achievements to the presence of organized, centralized and hierarchical communities and a large population. Between 1000 BCE and 100 CE, the Sa Huỳnh culture flourished along the south-central coast of Vietnam . Ceramic jar burial sites that included grave goods have been discovered at various sites along
11639-772: Was developed independently in China by 2000 BC. Pottery developed independently throughout the world, with fired pots appearing first among the Jomon of Japan and in West Africa at Mali . Sometime between 5000 and 4000 BC the potter's wheel was invented. By 3000 BC, the pottery wheel was adapted into wheeled vehicles which could be used to carry loads further and easier than with human or animal power alone. Writing developed separately in five different locations in human history: Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, and Mesoamerica. By 3400 BC, "proto-literate" cuneiform spread in
11752-421: Was evolving into Hinduism , which spread throughout Southeast Asia. Siddhartha Gautama , born around 560 BC in northern India, went on to found a new religion based on his ascetic life – Buddhism . This faith also spread throughout Eastern and Southeastern Asia after his death. This period also saw the composition of the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata . The kingdom of Magadha rose to prominence under
11865-797: Was introduced into Greece at pre-classic times. Other instruments known as lyres have been fashioned and used in Europe outside the Greco-Roman world since at least the Iron Age . Lyres are depicted on ceramic and bronze vessels of the Proto-Celtic Hallstatt culture across central Europe. Among them there are lyres with rounded bottoms, stringed instruments whose resonators seem to be missing and lyres with strongly curved yokes and single or double bulging resonators. The number of strings depicted varies from two to ten. Fragmented tuning pegs and bridges made of wood have been discovered from
11978-522: Was likely to have been great freedom and independence of different localities in the matter of lyre stringing, which is corroborated by the antique use of the chromatic (half-tone) and enharmonic ( quarter-tone ) tunings - pointing to an early exuberance, and perhaps also to a bias towards refinements of intonation. The number of strings on the classical lyre therefore varied, with three, four, six, seven, eight and ten having been popular at various times. The priest and biographer Plutarch (c. 100 CE) wrote of
12091-524: Was located in the Niger River Valley in the country of Mali and is considered to be among the oldest urbanized centers and the best-known archaeology site in sub-Saharan Africa . This archaeological site is located about 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) away from the modern town and is believed to have been involved in long-distance trade and possibly the domestication of African rice. The site is believed to exceed 33 hectares (82 acres); however, this
12204-399: Was obtained. Likewise the three-stringed lyre may have given rise to the six-stringed lyre depicted on many archaic Greek vases. The accuracy of this representation cannot be insisted upon, the vase painters being little mindful of the complete expression of details; yet one may suppose their tendency would be rather to imitate than to invent a number. It was their constant practice to represent
12317-512: Was ruled by the Seleucid dynasty . Parthia was an Iranian civilisation situated in the northeastern part of modern Iran. Their power was based on a combination of military power based on heavy cavalry with a decentralised governing structure based on a federated system . The Parthian Empire was led by the Arsacid dynasty , which by around 155 BC under Mithradates I had mostly conquered
12430-682: Was sacked, ending the Hittite Empire . Israel and Judah were related Iron Age kingdoms of the ancient Levant and had existed during the Iron Ages and the Neo-Babylonian, Persian and Hellenistic periods. The name Israel first appears in the stele of the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah around 1209 BC. This "Israel" was a cultural and probably political entity of the central highlands, well enough established to be perceived by
12543-634: Was the main language of diplomacy in the Near East. Assyria was originally a region on the Upper Tigris , where a small state was created in the 19th century BC. The capital was at Assur , which gave the state its name. Later, as a nation and empire that came to control all of the Fertile Crescent, Egypt and much of Anatolia , the term "Assyria proper" referred to roughly the northern half of Mesopotamia (the southern half being Babylonia), with Nineveh as its capital. The Assyrian kings controlled
12656-529: Was thought. There came to be two different kinds of bowed European lyres: those with fingerboards, and those without. The last surviving examples of instruments within the latter class were the Scandinavian talharpa and the Finnish jouhikko . Different tones could be obtained from a single bowed string by pressing the fingernails of the player's left hand against various points along the string to fret
12769-574: Was widely used in north-western Europe from pre-Christian to medieval times. The earliest reference to the word "lyre" is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e , meaning "lyrists" and written in the Linear B script. In classical Greek, the word "lyre" could either refer specifically to an amateur instrument, which is a smaller version of the professional cithara and eastern- Aegean barbiton , or "lyre" can refer generally to all three instruments as
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