The stone memorial from Merida in Spain preserves the image of a young girl called Lutatia Lupata, with her lute. Already popular with the Egyptians, and ancestral to the modern guitar and violin, the lute was a familiar feature of music throughout much of the Roman Empire.
Lutes differ from lyres in having a single neck with the strings stretched along its length. Most pictures show the instrument being played by women and girls.
In a grave at Panticapaeum (modern Kerch) beside the Black Sea, archaeologists found the outer casing from the body of such an instrument. It was made of thin silver sheet beaten into the form of a tortoise shell; alongside it were fourteen ivory tuning-pegs.
