Strings

The Lyres of Ur, excavated from ancient Mesopotamia and dated to around 2500 BCE, are among the oldest stringed instruments ever recovered. From there the lute traveled the Silk Road, evolving as it went. The same principle turned up on every continent: a string under tension, shaped by how it is plucked, bowed, or struck. The instruments here reflect that reach: Irish fiddles and Indian sitars, West African koras, Greek bouzoukis, Appalachian dulcimers, Renaissance lutes, five-string banjos, hammered dulcimers, Celtic harps. They carry the histories of the communities that built and played them, in traditions as alive today as they have ever been.