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The Carnyx - Ancient Celtic War Horn
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The Carnyx was the war horn of the ancient
Celts. It was primarily used to provide
additional noise and confusion on the
battlefield. Recent efforts to reconstruct this
instrument have met with great success.
If ever there was a War Horn specifically designed to get the immediate attention of friends and to scare the b'jaysus out of enemies, that would have been the Celtic Carnyx. Imagine the voice… something like a cross between a fresh-skewered boar and the Loch Ness serpent in heat… ringing through the forest or floating o'er the hills.
According to Diodorus Siculus , "Their trumpets are also of a peculiar and barbaric kind which produce a harsh, reverberating sound suitable to the confusion of battle."  The Carnyx was a strange-looking device; a thin, tapered metal tube of hammered bronze, some twelve feet long and bent at a right angle near both ends. At the smaller end was a mouthpiece of some sort to protect the lips of the player. The upper end flared out into a bell which was usually decorated to look like the head of an animal, most commonly a boar. The horn was played in an upright position, placing the business end high above the heads of the warriors. Examples have been found at a number of sites throughout Europe, to the lower Danube valley. However, the most complete archaeological find is from Deskford, Scotland; found in Moray Firth, in 1816. There is a striking representation of the Carnyx on a silver Roman denarius, from 48 BC. Three horn players are featured prominently on the Gundestrup Cauldron, which was found in a Danish peat bog, but was likely manufactured in the region of the Black Sea, over 2000 years ago.   What was the sound of the Carnyx? Thanks to the efforts of John Kenny, from the Glasgow Royal Scottish Academy, we have at least one modern example. In 1998, he gathered a multi-disciplinary group consisting of musicologist, John Percer, archaeologist, Fraser Hunter, and metalworker, John Creed. Using the dimensions and basic design of the horn found at Deskford, they have built a working reconstruction. Kenny has taught himself to play this thing and has participated in a number of recordings. You may listen to a short sampling of the sound at An Ancient Calling. Archaeologists and anthropologists theorize that the Carnyx may have had other uses, besides that of creating a lot of noise and confusion during battle. It is quite possible that such horns could have been used for signalling over long distances, much as the "Alpenhorns" were used until the last century. Others believe that these horns may have been used for ceremonial occasions. How better to announce the arrival of the king, or to summon the attention of the Gods? So then, if you are one of those people who likes to "Toot his own horn", the Carnyx is just the thing for you. In fact, we have renamed our Celtia Announcements Thread for this noble instrument. Come to Celtia and read about what is going on! References: Prehistoric Music Ireland Ancient Lothian Music Scotland PictArts (sound sample) An Ancient Calling (sound sample) Marc Marnie - Photographer Crawford, Michael Roman Republican Coinage |
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