Yo-Yo Ma, famed cellist, pulled some strings and plucked a spiked fiddle of wood inlaid with mother of pearl, from Tiflis (Tbilisi), Georgia, early 20th century from one of the Museum's storerooms. January 29, 2000 "The inlay of ivory and mother of pearl on this old, old instrument is beautiful and very fragile. It would be like a violin. The larger one would have been like the viola, and seems to be the forerunner of the lute. Look at the shape. From the center of Asia it traveled west on the Silk Road to become the lute and eventually the stringed instruments of today. It also traveled east to China where it evolved into the pipa and to Japan where it became the biwa. This is surely an early example of globalization." next pair of eyes >