The Met’s arched harp, object 25.3.306a, b, preserves a wooden form whose musical operation involved other materials. The museum explains that its sound box was originally covered with animal skin and resonated when the strings were plucked.
Its collection entry gives a length of 120 centimetres and places it broadly around 1580–1295 BCE. Those details help prevent a small screen image from making the instrument seem miniature.
Read the surviving structure and the described arrangement
Make one note about what the institution’s photographs show and another about the components described in its account. A missing covering does not mean the instrument was designed to operate as bare wood alone.
For a simple schematic, outline the curved structure and label the sound-box area. Mark missing or reconstructed features clearly rather than drawing a confident complete instrument from imagination.
The object does not preserve a performance that can be replayed. Its construction can inform questions about music making, but exact repertoire, tuning, and this particular player’s technique require other evidence.
That limit does not diminish the object. Understanding how materials worked together offers a more grounded encounter with ancient music than assigning a modern melody to an instrument merely because its silhouette looks familiar.
Editorial illustration from this site’s image library; not documentary evidence of the example or object discussed.