Who first used the harp?

Answer 1

We really don't know! Harps are referenced in Genesis, the first book of The Bible, so apparently they were in common use 6,000 years ago. We also find pictures of harps and harpists in the ancient Egyptian pyramids.

Considering the fact that Neanderthals used bone flutes, they obviously enjoyed instrumental music-making. They probably used some sort of plucked strings as well. The harp, in one form or another, may well have existed as much as 100,000 years ago, or more!

Chinese and Egyptian early art, about 3,000 BC, depict sophisticated harps with as many as twenty-seven strings! Some such pictures depict the harpist plucking as many as 3 strings at once. (So much for our prejudiced Western theories, that harmony evolved in Europe, around 1,000 A.D.!)

The Welsh bards also used harps. The origin of the Welsh bards predates the formation of the English Channel, as late as 180,000 years ago. However, there is no recorded history to verify their use of the harp in such early periods. (Modern humans first appeared in Africa, about 200,000 years ago...and had about 20,000 years to roam to Britain by land, while it was still connected to continental Europe, before the English Channel existed. Since early humans were nomadic, it seems likely that they traveled as far as modern Wales.)

The harp, along with the flute and drums, predate recorded history. My supposition is that modern man (homo sapiens sapiens) learned much about music from the Neanderthals, whose habitation of this planet overlaps that of modern man.

So, the final answer to your question is: The first harp probably predates modern man. It was likely in use long before history was ever recorded!