Bassara

/bæˈsɑːrə/ noun

Definition

A type of ancient stringed musical instrument, possibly a harp or lyre from Mesopotamian or ancient Near Eastern cultures.

Etymology

From ancient Mesopotamian or Semitic language sources. The term appears in archaeological and musicological texts describing ancient instruments reconstructed from cuneiform texts and artwork.

Kelly Says

We know about ancient instruments like the bassara only from artwork and written descriptions—when archaeologists find ancient lyres, they have to use everything from art history to physics to figure out what they actually sounded like.

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