Iberian Peninsula to the indus

. . . Odysseus, mastermind in action,
once he’d handled the great bow and scanned every inch,
then, like an expert singer skilled at lyre and song–
who strains a string to a new peg with ease,
making the pliant sheep-gut fast at either end–
so with his virtuoso ease Odysseus strung his mighty bow.
Quickly his right hand plucked the string to test its pitch
and under his touch it sang out clear and sharp as a swallow’s cry.
Horror swept through the suitors, faces blanching white,
and Zeus cracked the sky with a bolt, his blazing sign.
2
in mesopotamia the arched harp was the only type of harp until the second half of the 
isin-larsa period and the old Babylonian periods when angular harps appeared in 
Harp player cycladeS
Thera 
Early Cycladic II period (2700–2300 BC)
Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe, 
inv. 864
(cat. 21)

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55
54
great numbers on terracotta plaques. The switch from arched to angular harps was a 
radical change, not only in design but in the number of strings available on the harp. 
The angular harps consisted of a narrow, hollow body into which a thick solid rod 
had been attached horizontally at the lower end of the near-vertical body. The rod 
was stuck through a hole drilled perpendicularly through the body. Much later, during 
the Islamic period in Iran, the attachment became more elaborate with supporting 
brackets. Short strings occupied the corner-space between the body and the rod. Long 
strings spanned the space between the end of the rod and the top of the body. Short 
strings were easily accessible to the player, but long ones were harder to reach. It was 
conceived in 1900–1600 BC. Its shape differed from arched harps and there were other 
differences. Importantly, angular harps had more strings than arched ones.
3
In this short overview of the history of harps, arched and angular, in the ancient 
world,
we will first present the case for mesopotamia, egypt and the Cyclades, then, 
turning towards the east, look at elam, the oxus and the indus civilizations. 
in mesopotamia (3300–2000 BC), harps seem to have appeared before the lyre. 
they were all 
arched
harps. the image of such an early harp was used as a pic-
tograph (
balag
) on nineteen clay tablets from uruk. they are dated to the uruk iV 
and iii periods. such tablets formed the basis of analytic discussions of the earliest 
writing in mesopotamia.
4
the signs show a 3-stringed arched harp similar to the 
extant Queen’s harp, dated 2450 BC, excavated at ur, where it has 13 strings. the 
numerous attestations indicate that arched shapes, indeed, existed in early mesopo-
tamia. such arched harps also appeared on mesopotamian seals and on consecration 
plaques (2600–2400 BC).
Angular
harps are shown on several terracotta plaques dated to the old Baby-
lonian period. they are also shown on terracotta plaques found at ishchali, a site 
excavated by the oriental institute of Chicago university in the 1930s. there they 
were dated “late isin-larsa period”. the two periods comprise a three century span 
(1900–1600 BC), during which angular harps were invented. 
in egypt, 
arched 
harps (“shovel-shaped” harps) were introduced early in the old 
Kingdom, the iV dynasty (ca. 2500 BC). for five centuries, it was the only type, but 
after the middle Kingdom, new types of arched shapes arose. unlike other parts of 
the ancient world, arched harps lasted in egypt into the Hellenistic world. Because 
of the longevity, one might consider ancient egypt a prominent “harp culture”, just 
as ancient greece was a “lyre” culture. 
Angular
harps were not imported to egypt until the new Kingdom: the first such 
harp is shown in a theban tomb from the reign of Amenophis ii. they continued to 
be shown in to the roman period.
the roman fascination with egypt also brought harps to italy. Athenaeus (160–
230 Ad), living in Alexandria, egypt, has a story about it. in