Musical Assertions (fwd)

[Sharon Goetz]

On Fri, 8 Dec 1995 kohrn at bach.seattleu.edu wrote:
> remembe of museum (somewhere in Northern England) that had a pretty good
> collection of medieval instruments too.  I suppose it might come
> down to what you call medieval.  Has anything survived from the "dark
> ages"?

According to the comprehensive catalog of finds at Sutton Hoo, there's a 
lute-like instrument whose remains have been found.  It's identifiably a 
string instrument, but I expect it'd be a little difficult to tell how it 
had been tuned (I don't recall what the original post was asking).  The 
Sutton Hoo site's date is sometime in the seventh century (opinions vary).
--Bronach