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Gallic lyreHibou
Historical instrument
Reconstructed with the means, techniques and materials of its time.
Model: Gallic lyre of Paule (Late Iron Age)
Collection: Animal Spirit
Specifications
- Body
- Ash
- Soundboard
- Figured ash
- Yoke
- Walnut
- Tuning pegs
- Turned boxwood
- Tailpiece
- Walnut
- Bridge
- Olive ash
- Strings
- Nylon or gut
- Ornamentation
- Leather lashing with an eagle-owl feather pendant and a Gallic bead
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Every instrument is made to order: woods, ornaments, strings and pickup are adapted to the way you play.
History and origins
Gallic lyre of Paule · Late Iron Age
Found at Paule, in the Côtes-d'Armor, the bust of the Bard with the lyre shows a figure wearing a torc and holding a lyre. It is the most precise depiction of a Gallic lyre ever found, and one of the oldest depictions of a stringed instrument in France.
In 2018, the PRIAE team, which we lead, carried out the 3D scanning of the bust with the Regional Archaeology Service of Brittany. The precision of this survey brought new data on the instrument.
Depictions of the lyre are rare in Gaul, and often stylised. We have gathered a corpus of images, in particular Gallic coins, on which the lyre often appears. Greek and Latin authors also mention the bards, who sang to the lyre.
Materials identified through palynology, Iron Age tools reforged, gestures recovered through experiment: each trial guides our choices and brings our instruments closer to historical reality.
