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Pieces of alabaster lyre

Λ107, Λ179
Stone (Alabaster)
Incomplete. Two joining unmended fragments from one arm of the instrument are preserved.
Length of fragments: 10.9 cm. and 8.5 cm.
Knossos
Palace
Late Bronze Age. Neopalatial - Final Palatial period, LΜ Ι - LΜ ΙΙΙI period.:
1600-1300 BC:
Gallery:
VI
Case:
59
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC). Private and public life. Bread and circuses
Music
Description
Two fragments from the arm of an alabaster lyre. Only the swan’s-head finial and a lower piece with the beginning of the lower bridge are preserved. The reconstruction of the instrument by Nikolaos Platon has been criticised, as alabaster is not a good material for producing sound. The soundbox may actually have been made of tortoiseshell or wood, attached to the lower arms and forming the curved base of the instrument. This almost triangular type of Minoan stringed instrument differs from the characteristic crescent-shaped Minoan kithara usually depicted in Minoan iconography, and resembles a type of lyre seen in a Theran fresco. The swan’s-head finials, however, are a typical feature of the Minoan kithara. Waterfowl also decorate the arms of Egyptian stringed instruments from the mid-15th century BC and have erotic connotations.
Bibliography:
Platon, Ν. "Μινωική λύρα". In Χαριστήριον εις Αναστάσιον K. Ορλάνδον, Βιβλιοθήκη της εν Αθήναις Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρε?ας 54, Athens, 1966, 208-209, fig. 1, pl. LXVII. Younger, J.G. Music in the Aegean Bronze Age. SIMA Pocket-book 144. Jonsered, 1998, 16, 63 cat. no. 11, pl. 16. Karetsou, A., M. Andreadaki-Vlazaki, and N. Papadakis (eds), Κρήτη - Αίγυπτος. Πολιτισμικοί δεσμοί τριών χιλιετιών. Κατάλογος Έκθεσης. Heraklion, 2000, cat. no. 272. In Karetsou, A., M. Andreadaki-Vlazaki, and N. Papadakis (eds), Κρήτη - Αίγυπτος. Πολιτισμικοί δεσμοί τριών χιλιετιών. Μελέτες, Heraklion, 2000, 167-168.
Author:
S. M.


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