4,750 Year Old Harp to be Recreated
A harp enthusiast is hoping to recreate the first working copy of the famous Harp of Ur, which was vandalised in Iraq’s national museum following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Andy Lowings, 52, from Cambridgeshire, wants the replica instrument to be as close to the 4,750 year-old original as possible, even down to the source of the wood.
His £25,000 project caught the imagination of a nearby RAF squadron who agreed to collect two pieces of cedar wood from Basra and presented it to Mr Lowings on Wednesday.
The musical director of the Stamford Harp Festival was moved to act last April when the harp’s remains were among antiquities destroyed by thieves in Baghdad’s main museum.
“I want it to continue as a playing instrument to bring very early Iraqi and Arabic culture to people’s attention again,” he said.