The Study On Luts in Ancient Elamit figurine

The history of the sculpting and use of the figurines goes back to the prehistoric time of the Elam era. Sculpting has evolved during various prehistoric and historical time periods in Iran. The process of making figurines can be placed in two groups according to the materials they are made of; those made from precious stones and metals, and possibly made for nobles and courtiers and those made of clay which were manufactured through molding in large numbers and were used by the public. Such figurines were probably used through the molding technique due to considerations such as ease of access, speed of production, and the possibility of mass production. These figurines were probably made in general form for ease of access, speed, and possibility of mass production. In the second millennium BC, a significant number of the figurines were made in the form of musicians. These musicians are divided into two groups of either human or animal figurines. Animal figurines are predominantly monkey musicians playing percussion instruments. In terms of gender, human figurines include male and female musicians. Women are mostly depicted with percussions and men with chordophones and aerophones. The musicians holding chordophones demonstrate two main musical instruments: harp and lute. It seems that clay figurines had virtual function (totem) and had straight relation with Elamite people’s religious belief as some of these figurines were found in graves. These figurines have a long history in the Elamite culture. Figurines holding lutes had remarkable presence in two periods during the Elamite culture. Dressed figurines carrying short-neck lutes with an oval bowl first appeared during the Sukkalmahs Period and then, in the mid-Elamite period naked figurines carrying long – neck lutes appeared in the Elamite culture. The study of lutes carried by the Elamite figurines is the subject of this article. A study of more than 50 of these figurines led to the classification of lutes into two groups of long- neck and short- neck ones, which were categorized for the first time in this article. Different types of lutes in the hands of Elamite figurines, in terms of construction, the number of strings, signs on the instrument to detect the possibility of a string holder are examined. In addition, the relevance of lute type with dressed or nakedness of figurines, their connection with goddess and Elamite people’s beliefs and the possibility of sexuality in playing special musical instruments in Elamite culture have  been taken intoto consideration in this article. Possibility of the presence of a string on the short-neck lutes is one of the achievements of this research. Moreover, theory of accompaniment role of short-neck lutes with religious songs was strengthened in special religious ceremonies. Besides, dividing long-neck lutes into two groups based on their bowl shape and size and also possibility of presence of frets and fingering on this lutes according to the way of showing the left hand of the musicians and the signs showing presence of two strings is another result of this research. In this paper categorization of musical instruments follows the Sachs–Hornbostel’s system of musical instrument classification.