PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Cymbalak, Tomasz
TI  - Jew's harp - a subtle witness of musical culture and daily life in the middle ages and early modern times in archaeological finds
DP  - 2024 Apr 12
TA  - Staletá Praha
PG  - 96--118
VI  - 39
IP  - 2
AID - 10.56112/sp.2023.2.05
IS  - 02316056
AB  - Jew's harp - a small metal musical instrument widely used in Europe since the High Middle Ages - has become an interesting topic for Western European researchers in recent decades. This article brings the first presentation of Jew's harp from archaeological excavations in Prague. The 4 pieces of this Prague small collection were subjected to micro-analysis by the EDS-SEM method. Also other archaeological finds of Jew's harp from the lands of the Bohemian Crown are presented - 2 pieces from Moravia and 7 pieces from Lower Silesia. The author introduces the interpretation of this small object as a musical instrument into the awareness of the professional archaeological community. Reviewing the similarity of the instrument with construction metal fittings, its material being mainly iron, could (significantly) increase the number of archeologically recovered Jew's harps from the Czech lands.