The oldest pictorial record of a lute dates back to the Uruk period in Southern Mesopotamia - over 5000 years ago on a cylinder seal acquired by Dr. Dominique Collon and currently housed at the British Museum.
The image depicts a female crouching with her instruments upon a boat, playing right-handed. This instrument appears many times throughout Mesopotamian history and again in ancient Egypt from the 18th dynasty onwards in long and short-neck varieties.
One may see such examples on clay tablets and papyrus paper. This instrument and its close relatives have been a part of the music of each of the ancient civilizations that have existed in the Mediterranean and the Middle East regions, including the Sumerians, Akkadians, Persians, Babylonians
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