Another Golden Harp of Ur Replica

"Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari brought a gift
from Iraq for President Bush, aides said: a replica of an
ancient musical instrument. The golden lyre, a replica of
a 4,700 B.C.- era instrument known as the Golden harp of Ur,
was decorated with a lapis lazuli bull's head and engravings
of mythical animals drinking and dancing. Ur, in modern-day
Iraq, was the capital of ancient Sumeria and is mentioned in
the Bible as the birthplace of the Prophet Abraham." (AP)

Images of previous replicas of the Golden Harp of Ur:

http://www.atlastours.net/iraq/golden_harp.jpg

http://www.lyre-of-ur.co.uk/images/A_6.gif

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"The tablets from the Syrian city of ancient Ugarit
(modern Ras Shamra) were about 3400 years old, had
markings called cuneiform signs in the hurrian language
(with borrowed akkadian terms) that provided a form
of musical notation. One of the texts formed a complete
cult hymn and is the oldest preserved song with notation
in the world. Finally in 1972, Professor Anne Draffkorn
Kilmer, who is professor of Assyriology, University of California,
and a curator at the Lowie Museum of Anthropology at Berkeley
-- working with colleagues Richard L. Crocker and Robert R.
Brown -- developed an interpretation of the song based on
her study of the notation."

Slightly adapted from Robert Fink's essay
"Evidence of Harmony in Ancient Music":

http://www.greenwych.ca/evidence.htm

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University of Chicago, Oriental Institute, Lost Treasures
from Iraq, Iraq Museum database (updated April 12, 2005):

http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IRAQ/dbfiles/Iraqdatabasehome.htm