The Harp's Origins
No one really knows where the harp originated and we will never know what harp music sounded like in the pre-historical era. One of the earliest musical instrument discoveries showed a harp-like instrument on rock paintings dating back to 15,000 BC in France. Many believe that the earliest harps came from the sound of the hunter's bow. In Egypt, some of the earliest images of bow harps are from the Pharaoh's tombs dating some 5,000 years ago. These hieroglyphs show that there were many harps in ancient Egypt. The Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses III (1198-1166 BC) had many bow harps painted in his tomb. In the New Kingdom, harps measured up to 2 metres (6.5 feet) in height with 19 strings and were played seated or standing up.
Harps were very popular in ancient Assyria and Mesopotamia. One of the earliest illustrations of a harp was on a vase found in a Babylonian temple. These harps were angled harps with 12 to 15 strings and similar to the bowed instruments played in Egypt about the same time. The angle harp represents the next step in history towards the modern harp. The angle harp differs from what we call the harp today in that it lacked the front-piece, column or pillar. It was played "upside down" from its present playing orientation, with the tuning pegs on the bottom.