5,000 Year Old Sumerian Lyre Replica

[bradleypnw]

5,000 year old Sumerian Lyre discovered in 1929.

The Sumerian Silver Lyre - YouTube

The creator gives more information on his website.

silver lyre

 

[DontHertzMe]

I love Peter Pringles stuff! This is one of my favourites:


The Epic Of Gilgamesh In Sumerian - YouTube

 

[bradleypnw]

Oh yeah, that's pretty great. YouTube makes ancient music recreation/reinterpretation accessible. I think a neat YT channel would be a music historian who links to other YT channels like a tour guide. I hope someone does it.

 

[system7]

Extraordinary and interesting! Sumeria. What is now Southern Iraq.

How do we know what sort of tunes were played on a Lyre? Still the name of a modern star constellation, Lyra.

Ambient? Jazz? Blues? 😕

I vaguely remember reading the Epic of Gilgamesh in some form or other. And have heard of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Naturally as a Mathematician, I am interested in how far they got with Seaxagesimal counting:

Sumer - Wikipedia

Sexagesimal - Wikipedia

It's actually quite neat.

Sexagesimal, also known as base 60 or sexagenary is a numeral system with sixty as its base. It originated with the ancient Sumerians in the 3rd millennium BC, was passed down to the ancient Babylonians, and is still used—in a modified form—for measuring time, angles, and geographic coordinates.

The number 60, a superior highly composite number, has twelve factors, namely 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and 60, of which 2, 3, and 5 are prime numbers. With so many factors, many fractions involving sexagesimal numbers are simplified. For example, one hour can be divided evenly into sections of 30 minutes, 20 minutes, 15 minutes, 12 minutes, 10 minutes, 6 minutes, 5 minutes, 4 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes, and 1 minute. 60 is the smallest number that is divisible by every number from 1 to 6; that is, it is the lowest common multiple of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Pythagoras, 3^2 + 4^2 = 5^2 turns into 36, 48, 60. 😀

 

[Pano]

Cool stuff! Thanks for the link. I just read his website while listening to the Lyre.

 

[jjasniew]

I like the part where he launches into "Cry like a Baby" by the Box Tops ;')

"When I think about the good love you gave me
I cry like a baby..."

 

[bradleypnw]

Mesopotamian gods were chaotic and detached from human suffering due to the constant danger of crop damage and invasion which resulted in pessimistic proverbs so maybe that influenced their music as well.

If I put anything down it is snatched away; if I do more than is expected, who will repay me? Babylonian Proverbs

I'd go with blues Lyre.

Egypt had happier gods. The Nile was predictable and reliable. Hard to invade them because they were protected by desert. They also had lots of free time to build pyramids and stuff. I'd guess their music would be more jazzy.