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Early Lyres in Context

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Early Lyres in Context EARLY LYRES IN CONTEXT A COMPARATIVE CONTEXTUAL STUDY ON EARLY LYRES AND THE IDENTITY OF THEIR OWNER/USER Julia Hillberg Master’s Thesis in Archaeology 2015/VT Supervisor: Kristina Jennbert Department of Archaeology & Ancient History Lund University Abstract Prehistorical musical instruments have been explored in archaeology more systematically since the 1970s when music archaeology was established as a field of study. The new awareness initially led to studies centred on retrieving musical instruments that had been missed and were now lost in archives. New discoveries, too, are very object-oriented. This master’s thesis ties together individual finds of the Germanic round-lyre to create a comparative study, in which the main focus is set on their context. Instead of focusing solely on the object, the instrument will be used to get a glimpse of the person behind it, i.e. to face questions of identity. 26 finds dating to A.D. 500-1200 have been included from graves and cultural layers, stretching over central and northern Europe. They have been compared in terms of find context, state of the find, construction of the lyre, materials used, position in the grave, other grave goods and burial structure, considering also similarities and differences in space and time. This has resulted in a division between five possible types of owners/users of the lyre: The professional scop/skáld, the continental elite, the Anglo-Saxon elite, the clergyman and the individual from a lower social standing. Key words: Music Archaeology, Germanic round-lyre, bridge, Anglo-Saxon, continental, Scandinavian, context, grave, identity Fig. front page: The second reconstruction of the Sutton Hoo lyre (Drawing by Hillberg, based on Paulsen 1992: 149) 2 Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION ___________________________________ 1 1.1 Research Questions ................................................ 1 1.2 Material & Method ................................................. 1 1.2.1 Limitations ...................................................................................... 2 1.2.2 Criticism of the sources ................................................................... 3 1.2.3 Definitions ....................................................................................... 4 1.3 Research Background .............................................. 6 1.4 Theoretical Approach .............................................. 7 2 THE FINDS _______________________________________ 10 2.1 Lyre Finds in Graves ................................................ 10 2.1.1 Abingdon ......................................................................................... 10 2.1.2 Trossingen ....................................................................................... 10 2.1.3 Oberflacht (84) ................................................................................ 11 2.1.4 Schlotheim ....................................................................................... 12 2.1.5 Bergh Apton .................................................................................... 12 2.1.6 Prittlewell ........................................................................................ 13 2.1.7 Oberflacht (37) ................................................................................ 14 2.1.8 Morning Thorpe .............................................................................. 14 2.1.9 Taplow ............................................................................................. 15 2.1.10 Sutton Hoo .................................................................................... 15 2.1.11 Snape ............................................................................................. 17 2.1.12 Köln ................................................................................................ 17 2.1.13 Broa ............................................................................................... 18 2.1.14 Concevreux .................................................................................... 19 2.2 Lyre Finds from Cultural Layers ................................ 19 2.2.1 Dorestad (140) ................................................................................ 19 2.2.2 Dorestad (141) ................................................................................ 19 3 2.2.3 Elisenhof I ........................................................................................ 20 2.2.4 Elisenhof II ....................................................................................... 20 2.2.5 Birka ................................................................................................ 20 2.2.6 York ................................................................................................. 20 2.2.7 Hedeby ............................................................................................ 21 2.2.8 Gerete ............................................................................................. 21 2.2.9 Sigtuna ............................................................................................ 21 2.2.10 Trondheim ..................................................................................... 22 2.2.11 Oslo I ............................................................................................. 22 2.2.12 Oslo II ............................................................................................ 22 3 ANALYSIS ________________________________________ 23 3.1 Short Historical Background..................................... 23 3.2 The Lyre ................................................................. 23 3.2.1 Similarities and Differences ............................................................. 24 3.2.2 Plucked or Bowed ............................................................................ 33 3.3 Identity .................................................................. 35 3.3.1 Grave Contexts................................................................................. 35 3.3.2 Cultural Layers ................................................................................. 39 3.3.3 Sex and Age ..................................................................................... 39 3.3.4 Poetry and Entertainment ............................................................... 40 4 RESULTS _________________________________________ 48 5 SUMMARY _______________________________________ 52 REFERENCES _______________________________________ 53 4 Early Lyres in Context 1. INTRODUCTION Sound is ephemeral and forms a typical case of immateriality. For the study of prehistoric music, one needs to turn to the actual remains of the sound-producing instruments which are rare themselves. Musical instruments have therefore come to be placed in the shadows of more dominant find categories such as weapons, pots, brooches and coins which have been subject to cataloguing and typology since the very start of archaeology, yielding important knowledge about past life. But what about the aspects yet unknown? Instead of dismissing the rarer find categories as a difficult group to deal with, they should be embraced as the rare glimpse into the past that they are. The 1970s brought about an important change in this respect. With the establishment of music archaeology as a coherent field of study, front figures within the field have worked to find the hidden treasures and to discuss the finds already found. In this thesis a comparative contextual study will be conducted on musical instruments found in central and northern Europe, dating to A.D. 500-1200. As a next step in the development of music archaeology it is time for contextualising, to get to know not only the instrument as such, but the people behind it. The lyre has been chosen to provide a basis for comparison between different geographical areas and over a time span of 700 years. What changed? What remained the same? Are there any local variations or do they constitute a homogeneous find category? What can be said about their context? Where were they found and what can we learn about their owner/user? The chosen time period has been carefully studied from different angles before, but lyres have mainly figured as only one of many aspects of an archaeological report of a site. The aim here is to connect these different finds to provide a broader picture of the lyre, not least in terms of identity. 1.1 Research Questions - Which are the lyre remains from the time period A.D. 500-1200 and what do they look like? - Are there any similarities or differences in space and time in terms of lyre construction? - In what contexts have they been found? Are there any similarities or differences in space and time? - What can be said about the owner/user of the instrument? 1.2 Material & Method The aim is to look at the development of the lyre as such, but above all, to see what its context looks like and how it has changed over time. Is it possible, despite the rather scarce source material left, to say something about how, where and by whom they were used? 26 archaeological case studies have been chosen to provide a basis for the analysis, listed in the following table: 1 Table 1: A list of the included finds. This master’s thesis will be above all a comparative literature study. Publications – mostly reports – have been searched for lyre finds and their context in order to realise a comparative contextualisation. This, in order to close in on the identity of early lyre-players. Grave-finds will be discussed in terms of lyre-type,
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