“Striking an ancient chord” from Haaretz:

Sounds, archaeological finds and scientific hypotheses all play major roles in an exhibition entitled “Sounds of Ancient Music,” which opened last week at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem. Focusing on musical developments in ancient Sumeria, Babylon, Assyria and other cultures of the Ancient Near East, through the periods of the Kingdom of Judea, Greece and the Roman Empire, the exhibition features 137 objects – among them, rare musical instruments that have been preserved from antiquity, as well as full-sized replicas of instruments from those early eras …

Visitors to the exhibition are invited to listen to a trumpet being blown the way the researchers believe it sounded in the courtyard of the Temple. There are also earlier finds on hand – for example, a flute from the Chalcolithic period (the Copper Age, 4,300-3,300 B.C.E.), one of the oldest wind instruments discovered in all of the Near East …

Multimedia stations have been set up in the museum so as to enable visitors to virtually “play” such ancient instruments as the lyre, the flute and drums. Dozens of digital music players provide an audio guide in Hebrew and English with a highlight tour of the exhibition, peppered with the musical interludes based on the sounds of ancient instruments.

HT: BiblePlaces Blog