Sir Leonard Woolley and the Bull Lyre
Kathryn Rodgers
Take-Home Essay, Test 1
October 20, 2014
The Bull Lyre and The People of Ur The Bull Lyre was discovered in Iraq in 1929 by the archeologist, Sir Leonard Woolley. In 1926 Leonard Woolley had been elected by the Pennsylvanian and British museums of Archeology and Anthropology to lead an excavation that would examine the surrounding area of the mysterious ziggurat of Ur. Along with his team of excavators, Woolley was the first to unearth the “Royal Cemetery” of Ur, a mass grave full of private burial chambers and massive “death pits”. Inside of tomb 789, dubbed the King’s Grave, were two lyres, a bull-headed lyre, a silver lyre, and a bull-headed harp. The ancient instruments were found with the arms of their female players still wrapped around the strings, as if the women were playing the lyres until their final breath, nearly 5,000 years ago.
The Bull-Headed Lyre was built in the Early Dynastic period of Ancient Sumer, dating to about 2,600-2,400 BCE. It is made of cedar wood, and wrapped and plated in gold and lapis lazuli, with bitumen used as a sort of glue. The bull head crowns the inlaid sound box and is plated in gold while the beard of the bull is wrapped in lapis lazuli. Once the lyre was reconstructed, it resembled the pictured lyre in the dinner scene on the peace side of the Standard of Ur. The inlaid sound box has four panels that depict human-like animals, possibly preparing for a feast. There is a lion bringing libations, an ass playing the harp, a bear holding the harp steady, all in profile view. The top register of the sound box portrays a bearded man holding two rams on either side of him, in symmetrical fashion, or heraldic composition. Scholars suggest that these creatures are possibly having a funeral feast in the land of the dead, and that the sound box narrative may have a funerary significance. It is important to note that this is one of the first stories portraying animals with human personification. Later, this would
Take-Home Essay, Test 1
October 20, 2014
The Bull Lyre and The People of Ur The Bull Lyre was discovered in Iraq in 1929 by the archeologist, Sir Leonard Woolley. In 1926 Leonard Woolley had been elected by the Pennsylvanian and British museums of Archeology and Anthropology to lead an excavation that would examine the surrounding area of the mysterious ziggurat of Ur. Along with his team of excavators, Woolley was the first to unearth the “Royal Cemetery” of Ur, a mass grave full of private burial chambers and massive “death pits”. Inside of tomb 789, dubbed the King’s Grave, were two lyres, a bull-headed lyre, a silver lyre, and a bull-headed harp. The ancient instruments were found with the arms of their female players still wrapped around the strings, as if the women were playing the lyres until their final breath, nearly 5,000 years ago.
The Bull-Headed Lyre was built in the Early Dynastic period of Ancient Sumer, dating to about 2,600-2,400 BCE. It is made of cedar wood, and wrapped and plated in gold and lapis lazuli, with bitumen used as a sort of glue. The bull head crowns the inlaid sound box and is plated in gold while the beard of the bull is wrapped in lapis lazuli. Once the lyre was reconstructed, it resembled the pictured lyre in the dinner scene on the peace side of the Standard of Ur. The inlaid sound box has four panels that depict human-like animals, possibly preparing for a feast. There is a lion bringing libations, an ass playing the harp, a bear holding the harp steady, all in profile view. The top register of the sound box portrays a bearded man holding two rams on either side of him, in symmetrical fashion, or heraldic composition. Scholars suggest that these creatures are possibly having a funeral feast in the land of the dead, and that the sound box narrative may have a funerary significance. It is important to note that this is one of the first stories portraying animals with human personification. Later, this would