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HARVEY TURNBULL
The
Origin
of
the
Long-necked
Lute
IE
zAlljir#i')
U
Va
~ake
like
Caspia
Urma
Sea
cardermsp
he
P-h~nunnd
fkchali
euruk
i;Llr.;4
* Lora.
#Gaza THE
AN-CIEN
IsAR
EAST
Pcrsian
Gulf
paresthe two instrumentsfrom the point of view of technique;they
wereheld underthe armandwereplayedwith a plectrum.Following
Stauder,he statesthatthe useof the plectrumon thelyre wasnativeto
theregionof thenomads;theMountainPeoples'lyre,small,rectangular
and held with the stringsin a verticalplane, was played with the
andEllermeierconnects
fingers.The lutewasplayedwith a plectrum,12
the instrumentwith the Semiticnomads,the inventorsof the horizontal lyre. The link with the world of the shepherd,seenin two reliefs
fromNippur,'3is alsoimportantin theWestSemitictheoryof origin.14
Both Stauderand Ellermeicer
state that the lute first appearedin
Mesopotamiain the secondmillenniumB.c. Neitherconsidersthe two
small figureson two seals from the third millenniumnow in the
BritishMuseum,Nos. 28806and 89096(Pls.VI, V). Thesehave been
acceptedby RimmerI5and Rashid'6as representinglutenists,but
RichardG. Campbellis not of the sameopinion;he has statedthat
the two small figuresare not playing the lute, without, however,
offeringany alternativesuggestionsas to what the objectsthey are
of the sealsfrom an organological
holdingmight be." An assessment
of
view
is
desirable.
therefore
point
59
I amindebted
to MissJ. M. Munn-Rankin
in thehistorical
for guidance
contentof the paper,andto Dr. L. E. R. Pickenfor his observations
on a
numberof organological
points.
NOTES
W.
'Zur
Stauder,
Friihgeschichteder Laute', Festschrift
I
ffir Helmuth
Osthoff,1961.
2 F. Ellermeier,'Beitragezur Friihgeschichte
altorientalischer
SaiteninstruFestschriftfiir Kurt Galling, ed.
und Altes Testament,
mente', Archdiologie
ArnulfKuschkeandErnestKutsch,Tiibingen,1970.
Asiain theBritish
MusicalInstruments
3 J. Rimmer,Ancient
Museum,
of Western
London,1969,p. 23.
64
(a)
(b)
PLATE V
(a)
(b)
PLATE VI
4 Stauder,op.cit.p. 22.
5 Stauder,op.cit.p. 25.
6 Stauder,op.cit.p. 23.
7 It is doubtfulwhetherthenamesof the KassitegodswereIndo-European;
L Die SprachederKassiten,New Haven,
see KemalBalkan,Kassitenstudien
1954,e.g. Buriyash,p. 1o4, Maratash,
p. III, Shuriyashi,
p. 122.
8 Stauder,op.cit.p. 24.
9 S. A. Rashid,'DasAuftretenderLauteunddie BergvilkerVorderasiens',
undUrgeschichte,
HundertJahre-Berliner
Gesellschaft
fir Anthropologie,
Ethnologie
ZweiterTeil,Fachwissenschaftliche
Berlin,
197o.
Beitr~ige,
Io Ellermeier,op. cit.pp. 86-88. The mainsourcesusedby Ellermeierare:
E. D. van Buren, Clay Figurines
andAssyria,New Haven and
of Babylonia
London,1930;RuthOpificius,DasAltbabylonische
Berlin,1961;
Terracottarelief,
Barrelet,Figurineset Reliefsen terrecuitede la Misopotamie
Marie-Threrse
Paris,1968.To thesecanbe added:CharlotteZiegler,Die Terrakotten
antique,
von Warka,Berlin,1962.Rashid'spaperalsoincludesa numberof terracottas
not in Ellermeier's
list.
II Ellermeier,op.cit.p. 88; Rashid,op.cit.p. 218.
12 MarcelleDuchesne-Guillemin
hasarguedthatthe plectrumwas not used
on the lute until the middleof the secondmillennium('LaharpeI plectre
iranienne:son origineet sa diffusion',
Studies28, 1969,
Journalof NearEastern
was unableto discerna plectrumon the relief
p. III). Duchesne-Guillemin
of a lutenistnow in the OrientalInstitute,Chicago(seebelow,note 22). The
positionof the handon thisreliefsuggeststhe useof a plectrum,a view taken
herNo. 772(op.cit.p. 391,Pl. LXXV),a broken
by Barreletwhenconsidering
relieffrom Eshnunnawhich appearsto be from the samemould. The only
depictionof a lutenistclearlywithout a plectrumis on a relieffrom Susa,
where the thumbappearsto be usedto strikethe strings(G. Contenau,La
en Assyrieet en Babylonie,
Medecine
Paris,1938,Fig. 34). The positionof the
handhereis very differentfromthaton the Chicagorelief.
13 See 3 and4 in the list on p. 61.
14 Ellermeier's
exposition:op.cit.p. 89.
15 Rimmer,op.cit.p. 23 andAppendixI, p. 45.
16 Rashid,op.cit.p. 212.
derSchalenlanghalslaute,
17 Campbell,Zur Typologie
1968,p. 13,
Strasbourg,
note I.
18 The datesgiven mustnot be regardedas absolute.They aretakenfrom
the relativechronologyadoptedin TheNearEast:TheEarlyCivilizations,
ed.
JeanBottero,ElenaCassin,JeanVercoutter,London,1967.
19 VanBuren,TheFlowingVaseandtheGodwithStreams,
Berlin,1933,p. 58.
derGlyptikwdhrend
derAkkad-Zeit,Berlin,
20 Boehmer,Die Entwicklung
1965,p. I19.
21 Boehmer,op.cit.p. 88, note 13,not kneeling,as is shownby the clothing
endingbelow the knee.
22 Assignedto the Old Babylonianperiodby Dr. Hans Nissenin 1969.
The piecewas purchasedprivatelyin 1930and was saidto have come from
Ischali.Thisinformationwas kindlysuppliedby David P. Silvermann
of the
65
36 Wilhelminavan Ingen,Figurines
fromSeleuciaon the Tigris,Ann Arbor
andLondon,1939,Nos. 546-567.
New York,1940,Pl. IV, F.
37 CurtSachs,TheHistoryqfMusicalInstruments,
38 E. Akurgal,TheArtof theHittites,1962,p. xi8.
39 O. R. Gurney,TheHittites,Harmondsworth,
1966,p. 36.
40 C. L. Woolley, Carchemish
II, London,1921,P1.B 17 b andP1.B 30 b.
41 Sach,op.cit.P1.IV, G.
42 Kupper,op.cit.p. 230,note i.
43 Kupper,op.cit.p. 130.
66