Editing Harp (section)

==== West Asia and Egypt ====
[[File:Ur lyre.jpg|upright=0.9|right|thumb|[[Lyres of Ur]]]]
The earliest harps and lyres were found in [[Sumer]], {{nobr|3500 BCE,}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Galpin |first=F.W. |year=1929 |title=The Sumerian Harp of Ur, {{nobr|c. 3500 BCE}} |journal=Oxford Journal of Music and Letters |volume=X |issue=2 |pages=108–123 |doi=10.1093/ml/X.2.108}}</ref> and several harps were excavated from burial pits and royal tombs in [[Ur]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lyres: The Royal Tombs of Ur |url=http://sumerianshakespeare.com/509245/499545.html |publisher=SumerianShakespeare.com}}</ref> The oldest depictions of harps without a forepillar can be seen in the wall paintings of [[ancient Egypt]]ian tombs in the [[Nile Valley]], which date from as early as {{nobr|3000 BCE.}}<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/paintings3.pdf?gathStatIcon=true |title=Ancient Egyptian Paintings |vauthors=Davis N |date=1986 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |veditors=Gardiner A |volume=3}}</ref> These murals show an [[arched harp]], an instrument that closely resembles the hunter's bow, without the pillar that we find in modern harps.<ref name="internationalharpmuseum">{{cite web |title=History of the Harp |url=http://www.internationalharpmuseum.org/visit/history.html |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623222756/http://www.internationalharpmuseum.org/visit/history.html |archive-date=23 June 2016 |access-date=18 June 2016 |website=internationalharpmuseum.org |publisher=International Harp Museum}}</ref>
The ''[[Chang (instrument)|Chang]]'' flourished in Persia in many forms from its introduction, about {{nobr|4000 BCE,}} until the {{nobr|17th century {{sc|CE}}.}}
[[File:Bishapur zan, AO 26169.jpg|left|thumb|1A [[Sassanid]] era mosaic excavated at [[Bishapur]]]]

Around {{nobr|1900 BCE,}} arched harps in the Iraq-Iran region were replaced by [[angular harp]]s with vertical or horizontal sound boxes.<ref name="Agnew2010">{{Cite conference |last=Agnew |first=Neville |date=28 June – 3 July 2004 |title=Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road |conference=The Second International Conference on the Conservation of Grotto Sites |publisher=Getty Publications |publication-date=3 August 2010 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=n8YAyXzJE2IC&pg=PA118 118] ff |isbn=978-1-60606-013-1 |place=Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang, People's Republic of China}}</ref> The Kinnor ({{langx|he|{{script/Hebr|כִּנּוֹר}}}} ''kīnnōr'') was an [[Israelites|ancient Israelite]] musical instrument in the [[yoke lutes]] family, the first one to be mentioned in the [[Hebrew Bible]].
Its exact identification is unclear, but in the modern day it is generally translated as "harp" or "lyre",<ref name="Bromiley">{{cite book|author=Geoffrey W. Bromiley|title=The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia|date=February 1995|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zkla5Gl_66oC&pg=PA442|accessdate=4 June 2013|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-0-8028-3785-1|pages=442–}}</ref>{{rp|440}} and associated with a type of [[lyre]] depicted in Israelite imagery, particularly the [[Bar Kokhba revolt|Bar Kokhba]] coins.<ref name="Bromiley"/> It has been referred to as the "national instrument" of the Jewish people,<ref name="PutnamUrban1968">{{cite book|author1=Nathanael D. Putnam|author2=Darrell E. Urban|author3=Horace Monroe Lewis|title=Three Dissertations on Ancient Instruments from Babylon to Bach|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rLDoAAAAIAAJ|accessdate=4 June 2013|year=1968|publisher=F. E. Olds}}</ref> and modern [[luthier]]s have created reproduction lyres of the kinnor based on this imagery.

By the start of the Common Era, "robust, vertical, angular harps", which had become predominant in the Hellenistic world, were cherished in the [[Sasanian]] court. In the last century of the [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian]] period, angular harps were redesigned to make them as light as possible ("light, vertical, angular harps"); while they became more elegant, they lost their structural rigidity. At the height of the [[Persian language|Persian]] tradition of illustrated book production (1300–1600&nbsp;CE), such light harps were still frequently depicted, although their use as musical instruments was reaching its end.<ref name="Yar-Shater2003">{{Cite book |last=Yar-Shater |first=Ehsan |title=Encyclopædia Iranica |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |isbn=978-0-933273-81-8 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=RhQZAQAAIAAJ 7–8]}}</ref>