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Great Lyre from the "King's Grave" at Ur

Great Lyre from the “King’s Grave,” c. 2650-2550 B.C.E., Gold, silver, lapis lazuli, shell, bitumen and wood (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology)

Speakers: Monica Hahn, Brian Seymour

Your Comments (4)

Previous Comments

John Ignacio wrote on Friday, September 04, 2009

Beautiful, i had always seen pictures of this relic, but never really had an understanding to its origin and craftsmanship. up close and personal is much better then a simple picture in a book.

Lovely Patosa wrote on Thursday, August 19, 2010

Wow! This is amazing! I really wanted to see those personally, and study its origin.

Paul Zimmerman wrote on Wednesday, December 01, 2010

It's a good discussion overall, but I'd like to point out that many objects at Ur--including some harps and lyres--were recovered through plaster casts. I'm not sure whether or not the Great Lyre was reconstructed from a cast, but the general configuration of these instruments is known from actual examples recovered archaeologically, not just from their representations in works of art.

Jack Cheng wrote on Sunday, August 07, 2011

Glad to see this object on your site. Two quick points: 1. to follow up on Paul's comment, there was one instrument that was reconstructed purely based on a plaster cast, but most of them, including this one, were reconstructed by measuring the impressions left by the rotted wood (i.e. the wood was gone, but Woolley could see the outlines in the dirt -- and we can see them in his field photos). 2. This is interpretive, but I strongly believe it's a fallacy to associate the iconography with funerary rituals. I think this instrument was played in life and not built for the grave. My argument can be summed up by noting that of all the bull lyres in existence, almost all of them have images of animals or banqueting, but no explicit symbols of death or funerals. Here's a reference to my article on these instruments (available through JSTOR): Jack Cheng,