LILIANA OSSES ADAMS
HARPIST FROM UR
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Today, April 12, 2003, the millennia old lyre, known as the Queen's Golden Harp, has been damaged by looters at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. Between two mighty rivers The Fertile Crescent expands Hanging Gardens Babel Tower Gates to Eden
An old indigenous man
Sumerian Queen Shub-Ad
Amidst the ruins of a ziggurat like migrating birds they have gone blood flows as the river does the lamenting of men and women sadness abounds Ur is no more Ur is no more... ...No more... |
SUMERIAN HARPS FROM UR
More than 7,000 years ago, the fertile Mesopotamian plain between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers teamed with life. The first settlements of small villages, some coalescing into towns, were built by the Ubaidians, the nomadic tribes from Al-Ubaid site. These settlements, later known as the Sumerian civilization, gradually developed into sophisticated city-states, namely Uruk, Kish, Umma, Lagash, Larsa, Nippur and Ur, the most celebrated of all.
During the centuries that followed, the Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, Chaldeans, Israelites, Pheonicians, and Elamites (Persians) established their kingdoms in the region – the foundation for future civilizations, on which many cultures succeeded.
Until the mid-19th century the existence of the Sumerians was merely not suspected. The first major excavations leading to the discovery of Sumer were conducted in 1842-1854 at the Assyrian library of King Ashurbanipal at Nineveh. During the late 19th century, a series of excavations was undertaken at Lagash and Nippur. In the late 1920's and early 1930's, during almost 20 years of immense excavation 18 feet below the ground level, the joint British-American team led by the archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley – assisted by Sir Max Mallowan and his wife, the mystery novelist Agatha Christie – made sensational discoveries at the city of Ur (biblical, Ur of the Chaldees, the birthplace of Patriarch Abraham, the son of the wealthy shekh Terah).
The archaeological finds included: a massive pyramidal and amazingly well-preserved temple – a ziggurat, known today as Tall al-Mukayyar, c. 2,100 B.C.; the Royal Cemetery at Ur, filled with valuable jewelry and gold artifacts, including several musical instruments; flood strata – a deposit of silt measuring 11 feet in depth, the evidence of the Nuh's Flood from the times of Noah, c. 4,000-3,000 B.C.
The 4,500-year-old cemetery at Ur was in use for almost five
hundred years. The most renown of the burials, described by Woolley as
"Royal Tombs", dated from the Early Dynastic-III period, c. 2,600-2,500
B.C. Among the 1,800 graves of "common folk", containing the remains
of nearly 2,000 people, there were sixteen "royal tombs" with the
remains of many attendants, suggesting human sacrifices, probably carried out
among willing participants. Musicians, soldiers, courtiers, and servants had
accompanied their kings and queens into
the afterlife. Some of the most beautiful artifacts of Sumerian art were found
mostly at the "royal tombs". The luxurious contents included richly
adorned headdresses, ritual gold daggers, cups made of gold and silver,
alabaster bowls, gold vessels, thousand of small beads of lapis lazuli, personal
ornaments, gold pins and amulets, rings and necklaces, solid gold bull's heads
on tops of embellished wooden harps and lyres, mosaic panels, cuneiform tablets,
sledges and chariots, helmets and spears, horses and oxen, a
gold statuette of a ram caught in a
thicket (recalling Abraham's ram sacrifice), and offerings of food.
The treasures recovered from the Royal Cemetery at Ur were
subsequently divided among the University Museum of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia, the British Museum in London and the Iraqi National Museum in
Baghdad.
- Catalogued as "private grave" PG-800, the remains of
Lady Pu-abi, known also as "Queen Shub-Ad" were found. Her name was
identified by the inscription on a lapis lazuli cylinder seal that laid on her
shoulder.
Bust of Lady Pu-abi.
Reconstructed with golden earings and elaborate headdress
- a confection of golden leaves, golden ribbons,
and rosettes set of with lapis lazuli.
Reconstruction, 1982, after Leonard Woolley.
Bust of Lady Pu-abi.
Reconstructed.
(Taken by looters, April 2003.)
Iraq Museum, Baghdad.
Pu-abi's "death pit" contained the remains of more than a dozen ladies-in-waiting in "full regalia". The approach to the burial chamber had been "guarded" by five men with copper daggers. The harpist "seated" at the corner still accompanied his/her "divine" queen to the next world. Close by, the remnants of two wooden frames with many separate parts were found. The modern reproduction became a challenge for Woolley. He reconstructed the object, but was never happy with the result. Actually, this particular restoration suffered from the problem that the frames, appeared to be that of a harp and a lyre, long buried together, were restored as one musical instrument. Later on, a separation was achieved in form of two instruments: the harp, decorated with a bull's head, and with a pattern of gold on the sound-box, and the lyre with rectangular sound-box, and with the golden bull's head on its top. In the late 1960s, a new silvery lyre was reconstructed from the many pieces still left. The wooden parts and the strings on the instruments are modern, but the lapis lazuli, shell and limestone mosaic, set in bitumen are ancient. The gold bull's head (but not the horns) on one of the lyres are ancient, and the restored horns on the other lyre have been made of ivory. All three instruments are eleven-stringed ones, but the shape of the sound-boxes, along with the length of the strings distinct them. The strings of the harp, fastened on the wooden beam, pointed upward with gold rings (or tuning pegs) are of diminishing lengths, while the strings of the lyres are relatively equal in length.These three instruments, the masterpieces of Sumerian art, dated c. 2,600-2,350 B.C., known as the Harp from Ur, the Queen's Lyre, and the Silver Lyre, are now preserved at the British Museum.
Harp from Ur.
Sumerian, 2,600-2,350 B.C. (Restored)
British Museum, London.
Bull's head, Queen's Lyre (fragment). Sumerian, 2,600-2,350 B.C.
British Museum, London.
Silver Lyre.
Sumerian, 2,600-2,350 B.C. (Restored)
British Museum, London.
- Catalogued as "private grave" PG-789, in the so-called
"King's Grave", close to the sanctuary of Queen Pu-abi, the remains
of King "Lugal" Abargi, dated c. 2,685 B.C., were found. Even though
this tomb had been robbed in antiquity, its "death pit" remained
intact. The entrance was "guarded" by six soldiers wearing copper
helmets and carrying spears. A dozen men armed with their weapons laid close to
the bodies of richly adorned women, supposedly singers and a harpist. Close to
their heads the remnants of two musical instruments were found. They may be
associated with the ceremonial burial of the king. Their music and songs
accompanied their beloved king to the Underworld.
One of the most beautiful restorations of a musical instrument from Ur, is the Great Lyre, founded in the "King's Grave" with its original and well-preserved inlaid plaque, and a gold bull's head with curls of hair, beard and eyes of lapis lazuli. The lyre’s wooden structure has been reconstructed from the detailed measurement made by pouring the plaster into the impression left by the disintegrated wood. The eleven strings fastened on the rectangular sound-box are modern. The front of the sound-box is decorated with the mosaic plaque, trapezoidal in shape and set in bitumen. In one of four scenes, depicting mythological creatures, a seated animal – onager or bear – plays a similar lyre. Curiously, the strings of the lyre are being plucked with the fingers (instead of hoofs) by an animal having a human hand.
The Great Lyre, dated c. 2,750 B.C., regarded as a treasure of the ancient world had been recreated by Leonard Woolley, and is now on exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia.
Great Lyre.
Sumerian, 2,750 B.C. (Restored).
University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia, PA.
Bull's head, Great Lyre (detail).
Sumerian, 2,750 B.C. (Restored).
University of Pennsylvania Museum,
Philadelphia, PA.
Great Lyre, front panel (detail).
Sumerian, 2,750 B.C. (Restored).
University of Pennsylvania Museum,
Philadelphia, PA.
- Catalogued as "private grave" PG-1273, and referred by
Woolley as the "Great death pit", contained a large number of
skeletons laid in rows, side by side, as if asleep. The musicians, fully armed
soldiers, and court ladies-in-waiting, elegantly dressed in silk with gold
embroidery would follow their "divine" master into his grave. In this
gigantic "death pit", suggesting a mass suicide, probably caused by
despair (because the king was gone, or the city was destroyed once again, or
because of orgies or a ritual
sacrifice or ceremonial drinking of a drug or a poisonous liquid), the mystery
of the Sumerians were discovered. It seems that they believed in continuation of
life after death, described by many as – "a dark abode of miserable shadows
where eternity was spent in a wretched existence" – even though their
"gods" offered no explanation of any such existence. As the grave was
dug out, two more musical instruments were uncovered. They laid on top of each
other, and had been crushed together by the weight of the earth layer.
Eventually, during the process of restoration they had been separated. The
rectangular sound-box with mother-of-pearl inlay was decorated with a solid gold
bull's head, wearing solid gold beard (no lapis lazuli) and solid gold horns.
These two instruments known as the Queen's Golden Harp and the Lyre of Queen Shub-Ad, c. 2,600 B.C. were included in the Mesopotamian Archaeological Collection of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.
Lyre of Queen Shub-Ad.
Sumerian, 2,600 B.C. (Restored).
Damaged by looters, April, 2003.
Iraq Museum, Baghdad.
(Photo: Lynn Abercrombie, 1989)
The bull's head is its detail.
Sumerian, 2,600 B.C. (Restored).
Iraq Museum, Baghdad.
Recovered in Iraq's Central Bank, June 2003.
(Photo: Lynn Abercrombie, 1989)
- Catalogued as "private grave" PG-779, the largest tomb
at the cemetery contained an object, covered with inlaid little beads of lapis lazuli
and small carved figures, which Woolley called "The Standard of Ur."
It was found laying in the corner of a burial chamber above a head of a man.
When found, the original wooden frame was decayed, and two mosaic panels, set in
the bitumen, were broken. Its original function is not known. Woolley envisaged that it had
been carried on a pole as a standard. Another suggestion is that the hollow box
formed a part of a musical instrument. It was decorated on its
four sides with inlaid mosaic scenes
representing all social classes at war and peace. At the top of the
"peace" panel, a singer and a harpist playing
the vertical harp (also known as a lyre harp
or a lyre like those
found in many "royal" tombs) entertained the king.
The Standard of Ur, c. 2,650-2,400 B.C., is one of the most informative Sumerian objects of art that were discovered at Ur. The present restoration is but a best guess as to how it originally appeared. It is now preserved at the British Museum in London.
"The Standard of Ur".
Two sides, called "War" and "Peace", on the hollow box.
Sumerian, 2,650-2,400 B.C.
British Museum, London.
"The Standard of Ur".
The "Peace" part on the hollow box.
Sumerian, 2,650-2,400 B.C.
British Museum, London.
"The Standard of Ur", detail.
Sumerian, 2,650-2,400 B.C.
British Museum, London.
* * *
In April 2003, after a 48-hour long rampage and plunder at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, many priceless artifacts of Mesopotamian culture were stolen, badly damaged or disappeared, perhaps forever. Among the lost treasures are Sumerian harps and lyres. Some elements of the musical instruments, like silver plating and inlays of gems, ivory and mother-of-pearl have been stripped off. The solid gold head of a bull was stolen.
Fortunately, thanks to the museum practices and the archaeologists' foresight, hundreds of relics from the ancient Sumeria have been distributed worldwide following excavation by the British-American team.
Finally, after more then forty eight centuries, the world received not
only a glimpse to the past, but many exact replicas of the best golden objects,
including several harps and lyres. The man to whom we owe all of this is Sir
Leonard Woolley (1880-1960).
Sir Leonard Woolley with the triangular frame of an excavated Sumerian harp, 1920s. (Plaster cast.)
Such a frame is an archetype for the more developed mediaeval and modern framed harps.
* * *
Note :
Some historical sources (not to mention media, newspapers and popular magazines) do not make a clear distinction between harp and lyre. The lyres founded at the Royal Cemetery at Ur have been misinterpreted as a harp. Due to common use of rectangular sound-boxes, identical Sumerian instruments, with two arms connecting a crossbar, were called harp or lyre, depending on the discoverer's preference. It resulted in having lyre – a smaller instrument – being called "harp", and lesser forms of harp being called lyres. The main element which distinguishes these two instruments (if not the shape of the sound-box or the frame) are the strings: diminishing in length in harp, and almost equal in length in the lyre. Most Sumerian lyres had eleven strings, and it is assumed that each string produced a different sound, thus suggesting that Sumerian music for the lyre was more complicated than its contemporary Egyptian music, written for four-stringed lyre. The large Sumerian lyres would have sounded somewhat like a stringed deep tone bass, and would have produced a voluminous sound, as powerful as a bull's bellowing, apparently in a human imitation of a bull's "voice".It is worthy to add, that the oldest musical instrument in Sumeria was indeed the harp, dated from Uruk period, c. 4,000-3,200 B.C. It was a small harp made of cranium and horns of a Sacred Bull, which Gilgamesh, the King of Uruk (biblical Erech; modern Warka) heroically slew at the City wall's precinct of the Isthar temple. He then "clothed" the harp with gold and horns and dedicated it in memory of his father Lugalbandu, the third king of Erech after the great flood, worshipped for over a thousand years.
* * *
Acknowledgments :
I am grateful to Dr. Richard Zettler of the University Museum of Pennsylvania, Professor John M. Russell of the Massachusetts College of Arts, Boston, MA; Prof. Dr. Joachim Braun of the Jerusalem University, and Mr. John Wheeler of King David's Harp, Inc. for their kind and informative responses to my queries.
(Based upon various sources)
Liliana Osses Adams
California, April-May 2003
Post Scriptum (July 1, 2003)
In mid-May 2003, Professor John M. Russell, Chairman of Critical Studies Department, Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, participated in a UNESCO visit to the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. In an e-mail message of June 19, 2003, he informed me that he has seen the Harp of Ur displayed on the table, along with other broken objects. Although badly smashed, the instrument appeared to be restorable. Also the golden bull's head was reportedly safe. Professor Russell expects, as we all do so, that one day the harp will be restored to an almost "good as new" condition. (LOA)(Quoted with Professor Russell's permission)
Post Scriptum 2 (July 7, 2003)
On July 6, 2003, a TV program on the recovered artifacts that belong to Iraq Museum in Baghdad was aired by The National Geographic. The Harp of Ur was shown being in a miserable condition, broken into three separate parts: the two vertical arms and the resonating box. The resonating box and the frame, both decorated with mother of pearl-inlaid mosaic, are badly smashed and large parts of the mosaic missing.This TV program reported the sensational discovery made on June 12, 2003, at the site of Iraq's Central Bank in Baghdad. In the destroyed bank building, in underground vaults, flooded with sewer waters and hidden behind double walls, a US recovery team and Iraqi officials unexpectedly found in wooden cases the so called Nimrud Treasure, i.e. the fabled collection of golden jewelry that was unearthed in the 1980s by an Iraqi archeological expedition in the Assyrian royal tombs in Nimrud. The Nimrud Treasure had been shown publically only once soon after it was found. Then it mysteriously disappeared in the hands of Saddam Hussein's officials. This treasure was being sought after since the fall of the Saddam's regime.
And now, amongst the Nimrud Treasure, the golden bull's head that once adorned the Harp of Ur was found intact.
Even more surprising was the realization that this bull's head remained hidden in the vault since 1991, i.e. the first Gulf War, and that since then no one had reported its disappearance from Iraq Museum. It is anybody's guess if the motives behind hiding these most treasured ancient Sumerian artifacts were to make them safe, or to eventually appropriate them, similarly as it was recently done to huge monetary funds from the same bank.
On July 4, 2003, the Nimrud Treasure and the golden bull's head were shown to a selected group of experts and guests. It is planned that the Treasure will be publically exhibited at Iraq Museum in November 2003. (LOA)
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See also:
- The Lyre of Ur Reconstruction Project: http://www.lyre-of-ur.com
