Lyre Fragment, Plaque

ca. 2450 BCE

Details

Title: Lyre Fragment, Plaque
Date Created: ca. 2450 BCE
Location Created: Ur, Iraq
Physical Dimensions: 31.5 x 11 x 1.5 cm
External Link: Penn Museum online collection
Medium: Shell, Bitumen
Object Number: B17694A
Descriptive Note: Plaque from the Great Lyre. CBS Register: Bull's gold head, and shell inlay plaques. Harp of the king. Reconstructed. PG 789 (A is the Plaque, B is the Head) Shell inlayed plaque found just beneath the gold bull's head in grave 789 of the Royal Cemetery at Ur. This plaque was also affixed to the original wooden lyre and its imagery appears to depict the sequence of decent into the underworld. The upper register displays the hero struggling with mythical beasts; below this, animals serve a funerary feast while in the next register other animals play music (notably, one plays a bull-headed lyre). Finally, there is a depiction of the scorpion man who is thought to guard the underworld itself.
Credit Line: British Museum/University Museum Expedition to Ur, Iraq, 1928

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