The lyre enjoyed high cultural status in Mesopotamia and the Classical Greek and Roman world where it was associated with ideas of art, love, the human spirit, and interaction with the natural world. Although characteristic of the Mediterranean region the lyre spread far beyond its region of origin and representations of the instrument have been uncovered from sites in the North of the Indian Subcontinent, Bactria, and other Central Asian regions along the Silk Roads.Īnother example of a stringed instrument which was widely transmitted and transformed as it spread to new regions along the Silk Roads was the ‘lute’. Some of the earliest stringed instruments known were harps and lyres (which resemble small harps), speculated to have been first derived from hunting bow whose strings make a sound as they vibrate. Indeed, many musical instruments that were common in Silk Roads regions were very flexible and could be used to play a variety of styles of music. String instruments were amongst some of the most popular, versatile, and widespread across Eurasia, and much of the evidence for their transmission across the Silk Roads survives in the form of paintings, reliefs, and statues, which have been used to trace their movement and evolution. In turn, those travelling these routes absorbed the different musical influences of the regions they passed through. Different forms of music and the various instruments used to create it, spread beyond their regions of origin, accompanying people as they moved along the Silk Roads.
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