[Cronos]

There is no culture like this one--an utter nothing.

WEll, a secretive culture -- you can't call it nothing just 'cause you don't know about it.

I stick by the sitar origins for the guitar (thouh it can't be proved) for the overall design, the similar name. In hungarian, a guitar is a gitár. A lute is an altogether different animal. Plus the spread of the guitar from Eastern Europe to the West is pretty well known.

[Mamzelle]

Maybe it was really the samisen that fathered the guitar? (g) They look alike, too. Dulcimers, harps, and lutes were the earliest wooden string instruments used by Western musicians--they became mandolins, guitars, and fiddles.

If a culture inhabits a land for hundreds of years, with no music, art, myths (poetry) or even a good meal...I'd say it's more likely that there's nothing there rather than some treasure remains tantalizingly hidden.

But a lot of academics have made fools of themselves searching.