An Iron Age metal hoard containing one complete carnyx and a unique boar’s head flag standard has been discovered in Thetford, West Norfolk. It is one of only three carnyces known to be found in Britain, and none of the others are even close to complete. In fact, with the mouthpiece, tube/pipe and bell all intact, it is one of the most complete examples, if not the most complete, ever found in Europe. The boar’s head standard is the first ever found in Britain.
A carnyx was a vertical trumpet with a bell in the shape of an animal head with an open maw that was used by Celtic peoples in battle to rally their soldiers and terrify their enemies. Up to six feet high, they towered above the heads of infantry and produced a sound that carried far. Ancient chroniclers recorded their unsettling sound. They are pictured on ancient coins as Gallic icons and displayed in use on the Gundestrup Cauldron (a silver cauldron found in a peat bog in Denmark in 1891).
A number of Greek and Roman writers described warrior tribes in Britain, Gaul and elsewhere sounding carnyces to terrify their enemies. “Their trumpets are of a peculiar barbarian kind; they blow into them and produce a harsh sound which suits the tumult of war,” the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote in the first century BC.
The Thetford hoard was discovered last year by a team from Pre-Construct Archaeology surveying a building site. It was removed in a soil block and excavated in laboratory conditions to preserve the fragile sheet bronze. The block was CT scanned and its contents carefully removed by conservators at Norfolk Museums Service. They unearthed a complete carnyx, parts of another, the boar’s head standard, five shield bosses, and one mystery iron object that has so far stumped archaeologists. The hoard dates to between 50 B.C. and 50 A.D.
Via the always good History Blog.
Iron Age trumpet made with a brass sheet. Very provocative.
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DeleteBrass!? Where did THAT come from??
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See, the Brass Tribes were invisible people that often left hints of their secret culture to tease the normies. That trumpet is only one example. Do some research for God's sake...
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After that intro......the home team chopped off the head of a prisoner and used that as the ball for that futbol game.
ReplyDeletesomething to be said for sounds of some sort to rally people into battle. il.chuck
ReplyDeleteAnd after the Haka from the opposing side, the Battle began.
ReplyDeleteHaka, a great tradition.
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