Fragments of a lyre-shaped gusli (old Russian psaltery) have been unearthed by archeologists in the Troitsky-15 pit near Veliky Novgorod.

      According to preliminary estimates, the artifact is dated to the late 11th-early 12th centuries. On the outer side of the remaining gusli part there is a carved ornament evolving into a curl on the pegbox bar.

      Specialists of the Music Antiquities Center have carried out graphic modeling of the found psaltery and came to a conclusion that it used to be six-string. An ancient gusli found in 1969 in the Tikhvin excavation in Novgorod had the same number of strings.