Instruments Not Heard Together for 4,500 Years

While enjoying the great links at Biblical Studies Carnival X, I discovered this short video clip, which was just posted on August 24. It shows some neat improvisation on a pair of ancient Near Eastern musical instruments: the lyre and twin pipes.

Andy Lowings plays a lyre that he reconstructed based on remains from an instrument built 4500 years ago--the famous one discovered at ancient Ur in a mass grave. Barnaby Brown plays the silver twin pipes, which are also based on instruments found in the same grave at Ur.



In his blog, Dr. Francis Deblauwe describes the Lyre as meticulously pieced together with authentic materials, including genuine gold, lapis lazuli, bitumen, cedar wood, pearl shell, pink limestone, and sheep gut.