Distinctions among Canaanite, Philistine, and Israelite Lyres, and Their Global Lyrical Contexts

Abstract

For several millennia after 2500 B.C.E. lyres were confined to a few archetypes. Each had clear territorial affinities, and those belonging to the East (the Fertile Crescent) were distinguishable from those of the West (the Aegean). Palestinian lyres found in Canaanite/Phoenician (ca. 1400-800 B.C.E.) and Philistine (ca. 1000-800 B.C.E.) contexts had Eastern and Western characteristics, respectively. Information from later periods is scarcer, but one lyre from ca. 800 B.C.E. at Kuntillet c Ajrud in the Negev is Eastern in shape. Lyres shown on Bar Kochba coins (133 C.E.) were closely patterned on Roman models. All lyres had wide geographic spread, and none was unique to Palestine. The territorial spread of the main Eastern lyre (the thin lyre) coincides with the distribution of the term kinnārum, which is likely to have been the ancient name of the thin lyre. The biblical kinnor, a late form of the term, was given to the thin lyre during the final centuries of its life. The demise of the lyre came during the Hellenistic period after nearly three millennia of stability.