Editing Lyre (section)

==Ancient lyres==
There is evidence of the development of many forms of lyres from the period 2700 BCE through 700 BCE. Lyres from the ancient world are divided by scholars  into two separate groups, the eastern lyres and the western lyres, which are defined by patterns of geography and chronology.<ref name="Grove"/>

In the [[Baltic region]], archaeological remains have been discovered that suggest the existence of lyre-like stringed instruments since [[Prehistory|prehistoric times]]. Although finds are scarce, fragments of wood and other materials have been found that could have been parts of stringed instruments used in rituals and ceremonies. These discoveries indicate that [[Balts|ancient Baltic cultures]] developed primitive forms of lyres, adapted to their cultural contexts and available materials. In particular, remains of lyre-like stringed instruments have been found in areas of [[Lithuania]] and [[Latvia]]. These instruments, known locally as ''kanklės'' in Lithuania and ''kokle'' in Latvia, are part of a musical tradition that dates back to ancient times. <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Montagu |first=Jeremy |title=Survival of Instrumental Types around the Baltic |url=https://www.academia.edu/33125898/Survival_of_Instrumental_Types_around_the_Baltic |journal=European Seminar in Ethnomusicology in Rauland}}</ref>

===Eastern lyres===
[[File:Britannica Cithara Ancient Egyptian Cithara.jpg|thumb|upright|left|A lyre from [[Ancient Egypt]], found in [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]]]]
[[File:Ur lyre.jpg|right|thumb|140px|A bull lyrist on the [[Standard of Ur]], {{circa|2500 BCE}}]]
Eastern lyres, also known as flat-based lyres, are lyres which originated in the [[Fertile Crescent]] ([[Mesoptamia]]) in what is present day Syria, Anatolia, the Levant and Egypt. The eastern lyres all contain [[sound box]]es with flat bases. They are the oldest lyres with iconographical evidence of their existence, such as depictions of the eastern lyre on pottery, dating back to 2700 BCE.<ref name="Grove"/>

While flat-based lyres originated in the East, they were also later found in the West after 700 BCE.<ref name="Grove"/> By the [[Hellenistic period]] (c. 330 BCE) what was once a clearly divided use of flat-based lyres in the East and round-based lyres in the West had disappeared, as trade routes between the East and the West dispersed both kinds of instruments across more geographic regions.<ref name="Grove"/>

Eastern lyres are divided into four main types: bull lyres, thick lyres, thin lyres and giant lyres.<ref name="Grove"/>

====Bull lyres==== 
Bull lyres are a type of eastern lyre that have a flat base and bull's head on one side.<ref name="bull">{{Cite book |author=Bo Lawergren, Hormoz Farhat and Stephen Blum |date=2002 |title=Iran|chapter=Bull lyres|publisher=[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians|Grove Music Online]]. Oxford Music Online. [[Oxford University Press]] |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.13895}}</ref> The ''[[lyres of Ur]]'' are bull lyres excavated in [[ancient Mesopotamia]] (modern [[Iraq]]), which date to 2500 BCE and are considered to be the world's oldest surviving [[stringed instrument]]s.<ref name="mp">{{cite book|author=Michael Chanan|title=Musica Practica: The Social Practice of Western Music from Gregorian Chant to Postmodernism|year=1994|publisher=Verso|isbn= 978-1-85984-005-4|page=170}}</ref> However, older pictorial evidence of bull lyres exist in other parts of Mesopotamia and [[Elam]], including [[Susa]].<ref name="bull"/>

====Thick lyres====
Thick lyres are a type of flat-based eastern lyre that comes from Egypt (2000–100 BCE) and Anatolia (c. 1600 BCE). The thick lyre is distinguished by a thicker [[sound box]] which allowed for the inclusion of more strings. These strings were held on a larger 'box-bridge' than the other type of eastern lyres, and the [[sound hole]] of the instrument was cut in the body of the lyre behind the box-bridge.<ref name="Grove"/>

While similar to the bull lyre in size, the thick lyre did not contain the head of an animal, but did depict images of animals on the arms or yoke of the instrument. Like the bull lyre, the thick lyre did not use a [[plectrum]] but was plucked by hand.<ref name="Grove"/>

While the clearest examples of the thick lyre are extant to archaeological sites in Egypt and Anatolia, similar large lyres with thicker soundboxes have been found in Mesopotamia (1900–1500 BCE). However, these Mesopotamia lyres lack the box-bridge found in the instruments from Egypt and Anatolia.<ref name="Grove"/>

====Thin lyres====
[[File:Kinnor played before a king.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Excavated at [[Tel Megiddo]], a lyre player 1350-1150 BCE, identified as a likely ''kinnor'' by scholars.<ref name="GroveKinnor">{{cite book |entry= 'Kinnor |title=The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments |date=1984 |publisher=MacMillan Press |editor=Sadie Stanley |last= Montagu |first= Jeremy |volume=2 |place=London |pages=432-433 |quote=[In New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, this is the caption accompanying the image:] Kinnor played before a king: ivory plaque (1350-1150 BC) from Megiddo (Archaeological Museum, Jerusalem. }}</ref>  During the Iron Age, Megiddo was a royal city in the Kingdom of Israel.]]

Thin lyres are a type of flat-based eastern lyre with a thinner [[soundbox]] where the [[sound hole]] is created by leaving the base of the [[resonator]] open. The earliest known example of the thin lyre dates to c. 2500 BCE in [[Syria]]. After this, examples of the thin lyre can be found throughout the [[Fertile Crescent]]. The thin lyre is the only one of the ancient eastern lyres that is still used in instrument design today among current practitioners of the instrument. As a means of support, players of the thin lyre wear a sling around the left wrist which is also attached to the base of the lyre's right arm. It is played using a plectrum or pic to strike the strings; a technique later used by the Greeks on the western lyres.<ref name="Grove"/>

There are several regional variations in the design of thin lyres. The Egyptian thin lyre was characterized by arms that bulged outwards asymmetrically; a feature also found later in Samaria (c. 375–323 BCE). In contrast, thin lyres in Syria and [[Phoenicia]] (c. 700 BCE) were symmetrical in shape and had straight arms with a perpendicular yoke which formed the outline of a rectangle.<ref name="Grove"/>

The [[kinnor]] is an ancient [[Israelite]] musical instrument that is thought to be a type of thin lyre based on iconographic archaeological evidence.<ref name="Grove"/> It is the first instrument from the lyre family mentioned in the [[Old Testament]]. 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 Kochba]] coins.<ref name="Bromiley"/>{{rp|440}} 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 [[luthiers]] have created reproduction lyres of the "kinnor" based on this imagery.

====Giant lyres====
Giant lyres are a type of flat-based eastern lyre of immense size that typically required two players. Played from a standing position, the instrument stood taller than the instrumentalists. The oldest extent example of the instrument was found in the ancient city of [[Uruk]] in what is present day Iraq, and dates to c. 2500 BCE. Well preserved giant lyres dating to c. 1600 BCE have been found in Anatolia. The instrument reached the height of its popularity in [[Ancient Egypt]] during the reign of [[Pharaoh]] [[Akhenaten]] (c. 1353—1336 BCE). A giant lyre found in the ancient city of [[Susa]] (c. 2500 BCE) is suspected to have been played by only a single instrumentalist, and giant lyres in Egypt dating from the [[Hellenistic period]] most likely also required only a single player.<ref name="Grove"/>

<gallery>
File:Woman playing lyre, Egypt 4th century AD,.jpg|Terracotta figurine of a woman with a lyre, Egypt, 4th century A.D.
</gallery>

===Western lyres===
Western lyres, sometimes referred to as round-based lyres, are lyres from the ancient history that were extant in the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]], [[Greece]] and [[Italy]]. They initially contained only round rather than flat bases; but by the [[Hellenistic period]] both constructs of lyre could be found in these regions. Like the flat-based Eastern lyres, the round-based lyre also originated in northern Syria and southern Anatolia in the 3rd millennium BCE. However, this round-based construction of the lyre was less common than its flat-based counterparts in the east, and by c. 1750 BCE the instrument had died out completely in this region. The round-based lyre re-appeared in the West in [[Ancient Greece]] where it was sole form of lyre used between 1400 BCE and 700 BCE.<ref name="Grove"/>

Like the eastern flat-based lyre, the western round-based lyre also had several sub-types. [[Homer]] described two different western lyres in his writings, the [[phorminx]] and [[kitharis]]. However, both of these terms have not had uniform meaning across time, and their use during Homer's time was later altered. Today, scholars divide instruments referred to as kitharis into two subgroups, the round-based cylinder kithara and the flat-based concert kithara.

<gallery>
File:Diver Paestum 32.JPG|5th century BCE. ''Lyra'' or ''barbitos'' from the [[Tomb of the Diver]].
File:Diver Paestum 30.JPG|5th century BCE. ''Lyra'' or ''barbitos'' from the [[Tomb of the Diver]]. [[Tortoiseshell]] body.<ref>{{cite book|first= Angela |last= Bellia |title= Strumenti musicali e oggetti sonori nell'Italia meridionale e in Sicilia (VI-III sec. a.C.) |url= https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/33553811 |pages= 51–84}}</ref>

</gallery>

====Phorminx====
{{main article|phorminx}}

====Kitharis====
{{Main article|cithara}}