Description
Book SynopsisDuring the 1928-29 season at Ur, in the Great Death Pit of the Royal Cemetery, C. Leonard Woolley discovered two spectacular musical instruments—a silver Boat-shaped Lyre and a magnificent lyre with the head of a bull made of gold sheet and a lapis lazuli beard. This book chronicles their history, conservation, and reconservation. While little was known about mid-third millennium Mesopotamian archaeology early last century, it was clear that the Sumerians had developed a vigorous trade in luxury goods, with an economy that necessitated a highly structured government whose leaders could command rich and elaborate graves that included a full panoply of musical instruments.
In meticulous detail, using both traditional methods and new X-ray and electronic imaging investigative techniques, Maude de Schauensee probes and analyzes the construction of the two lyres held by the University Museum while providing an economic, historical, and sociological context in which to better u
Table of Contents
Illustrations
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. The Two Lyres—From Excavation to Conservation
2. The Boat-shaped Lyre
3. The Lapis-bearded Lyre
Appendices
A. Boat-shaped Lyre Treatment
B. Conservation of the Bull's Head for the Lapis-bearded Lyre
Notes
References
Index
