While many theories have been advanced regarding the first
stringed instrument that was the predecessor of the guitar, it is generally agreed that
the lute is the ancestor of the modern guitar. However, another theory advances the
Greek kithara as the predecessor of the guitar. But, research shows these theories to
be unreliable as the lute evolved from a type of
guitar.
The oldest preserved guitar is from the Egyptian
age; it belonged to singer Har-Mose. Buried with his tanbur near his employer Sen-Mut,
who was the architect for Queen Hatshepsut, Har-Mose lived around 3500 years ago. (The
queen was crowned in 1503 B.C.) This instrument of three strings can be viewed in the
Archaeological Museum of Cairo, Egypt, today.
Defining a
guitar,Dr. Michael Kashas, who did research in the 1960s, said, it has "a long, fretted
neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back, most often with incurved
sides." With this definition as the standard, the oldest representation of this
instrument that displays all the basic features of a guitar can be found is in a stone
carving in Turkey of a 3300 year old Hittite "guitar" with "a long fretted neck, flat
top, flat back, and with strikingly incurved sides".
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