lyres in antiquity

Of the two forms, the box lyre is the elder. It first appears in Sumer about 3000 B.C., its earliest representation so far known being that on a seal from Farra of that time. Early Sumerian lyres are invariably shown held in a vertical position, whether they are being played or merely carried; they were large, cumbersome instruments, asymmetrical, the yoke having two straight, divergent arms, one longer than the other. Resonators were adorned (or consecrated?) with the figure of...