Inside BAR

“David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments … on lyres and on lutes, and on timbrels and on rattles, and on cymbals (2 Samuel 6:6). In this issue, we present articles on all manner of instruments including the lyres, flute, rattles, sounding brass and cymbals.

Until recently, many scholars contended that there was no native evidence of ancient musical instruments in Israel. In “The Finds that Could Not Be,” Bathja Bayer presents that evidence. Dr. Bayer is a musicologist with a mission—to convince scholars and skeptics that ample archaeological discoveries paint a detailed picture of musical life in ancient Israel. Born in Germany, Dr. Bayer immigrated to Israel at the age of seven. Now senior lecturer in Hebrew University’s Department of Musicology, she is also active in the University’s Jewish Music Research Center.

Two instruments Dr. Bayer cites in her article are bone flutes, one fragment found at Dothan in 1962 but not recognized, and another found during the first excavation season at the City of David in 1978. “How Scholarly Communication Works” traces the investigative steps, from the Jerusalem flute to the eventual identification of the Dothan fragment.