Window into the Bible
Images of Musicians
Musicians played a key part in the worship of God by the Israelite people. 1 Chronicles 23:5 describes King David appointing 4000 Levites to be musicians, and to play the instruments he had provided them.
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Greek Musical Notations
Date: 2 - 3rd century AD
Place: unknown
Written on papyrus
Photographed at the Neues Museum, Berlin, Germany.
Musicians on Royal Standard of Ur
Date: c. 2550 BC
Place: Ur [Iraq]
Photographed at the British Museum, London, England.
Prisioners Playing Lyres
Date: 700 - 692 BC
Place: South-west palace, Nineveh [Iraq]
The clothing of these prisoners suggest they may have come from Phoenicia. They are been escorted by an Assyrian. This image recalls the experience of the Jewish captives in Babylon recorded in Psalm 137:
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!' How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?
Assyrian Musicians
Date: 645 BC
Place: Palace of Assurbanipal, Nineveh [Iraq]
Alabaster relief
Photographed at the Louvre Museum, Paris, France.
Hittite Musicians
Date: 8th century BC
Place: Sam'al, Zincirli [Turkey]
Carved on Basalt.
Photographed at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, Istanbul, Turkey.
Male Musician Playing Harp
Date: Unknown
Place: Ischali (ancient Nerbitum) [Iraq]
Photographed at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Male Musician Playing Harp
Date: Unknown
Place: Ischali (ancient Nerbitum) [Iraq]
Photographed at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Musician Playing Lute
Date: 2000 - 1800 BC
Place: Kititum Temple, Ischali (ancient Nerbitum), [Iraq]
Photographed at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Egyptian Models of Men Playing Harps
Left: Baked clay model of man playing a floor harp
Date: 1350 - 1070 BC (18-19th dynasties, New Kingdom)
Place: Egypt
Right: Limestone model of a man playing a tall harp
Date: 1330 BC (18th dynasty, New Kingdom)
Place: Egypt
Photographed at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Egyptian Model of Harpist
Date: 2477 BC
Place: Tomb of Nykauinpu, Giza, Egypt.
Photographed at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Egyptian Musicians
Date: 2477 BC
Place: Tomb of Nykauinpu, Giza, Egypt.
Photographed at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
The figure in the middle is a dwarf with his legs extended.
Female Tambourine Players
Date: 6th Century BC
Place: Unknown
Photographed at the Neues Museum, Berlin, Germany.
Dance Lessons on Kalyx Krater
Date: 440 - 430 BC
Place: Greek
Photographed at the Altes Museum, Berlin, Germany.
Female Dancer
Date: 4th - 2nd century BC
Place: Athens, Greece
Photographed at the Altes Museum, Berlin, Germany.
Female Dancer
Date: 4th - 2nd century BC
Place: Athens, Greece
Photographed at the Altes Museum, Berlin, Germany.
Marble Relief Slab
Date: 330 - 320 BC.
Place: Montinaeia, Arkadia
This relief depicts three of the nine muses.
Photographed at the National Archeological Museum of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Marble Relief Slab
Date: 330 - 320 BC.
Place: Montinaeia, Arkadia
This relief depicts three of the nine muses.
Photographed at the National Archeological Museum of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Marble Relief Slab
Date: 330 - 320 BC.
Place: Montinaeia, Arkadia
This relief depicts a musical contest between Apollion sitting on a rock holding a kithara, and Marsyas on the right playing a flute. A Scythian stands in the centre ready to kill the insolent Marsyas with a horrible death.
Photographed at the National Archeological Museum of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Apollo Playing Kithera
Photographed at the National Museum of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Satyr Playing Double Pipes
Date: 1st - 2nd century AD.
Place: Roman
The pipes on this bronze figure have been restored.
Photographed at the British Museum, London, England.
Musician with Seven Stringed Lyre
Date: 460 BC
Place: Unknown
Photographed at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Musician on Attic Red Figure Kylix
Date: 480 BC
Place: Possibly the necropolis of Vulci, Etruria, [Italy]
By the potter Brygos.
Photographed at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Painted Wall Panels showing Musicians
Date: c 470 BC
Place: Possibly the Necropolis of Vulci, Etruria, Italy
Shows a male flutist and female lyrist.
Photographed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts USA.
Woman playing Kithara
Date: 2nd century BC
Place: Unknown
Photographed at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, Istanbul, Turkey.
Woman playing Kithara
Date: 50 - 40 BC (Roman)
Place: From the villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoraele, Italy.
Photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, USA.
Fresco of Woman playing Lyre
Date: 50 - 79 AD
Place: Pompeii [Italy]
This fresco has been described as a music lesson or as a scene of love, showing a woman and her lover.
Photographed at the British Museum, London, England.
Fresco of Woman playing Lyre (detail)
Date: 50 - 79 AD
Place: Pompeii [Italy]
This fresco has been described as a music lesson or as a scene of love, showing a woman and her lover.
Photographed at the British Museum, London, England.
Woman playing a Lute (Pandoura)
Date: 300 BC
Place: Probably Cyprus
Photographed at the British Museum, London, England.
Woman playing a Kithara with a Plectrum
Date: 3rd - 2nd Century BC
Place: Greek, probably Southern Italy
Photographed at the British Museum, London, England.
Terracotta Lamp in the form of an Organist Playing a Water Organ
Date: Late 2nd to early 3rd century AD
Place: Made in Africa [modern Tunisia]
Photographed at the British Museum, London, England.
Accompanying sign reads:
'On each side of the instrument are air pumps; the pressure of water in the central column regulated the supply of air to the pipes, which were themselves controlled by a keyboard or pull-and-push stops.'
Terracotta Lamp in the form of an Organist Playing a Water Organ
As above.
Bronze Medallion Showing Water Organ
Date: Late 4th century AD
Place: Roman
Photographed at the British Museum, London, England.
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Harpist Stele
Date: 1069 – 664 BC. (Third Intermediate Period Place: Egypt |
Photographed at the Louvre Museum, Paris, France.
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Marble Relief with Satyr Playing Double Pipes
Date: 2nd – 3rd century AD Place: Roman
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Possibly was originally part of a sarcophagus.
Photographed at the British Museum, London, England.