Bronze horns from Irish hoards
By the bronze horns from Irish hoards in Ballynure, Drumbest and Drunkendult (all in County Antrim ) and Dungannon ( County Tyrone ) all in Northern Ireland , as well as Clogherclemin ( County Kerry ) and Dowris ( County Offaly ) both in Ireland is due to over 90 preserved horns the Irish island the evidence of music at least from the late Bronze Age . In the Dowris hoard there were 26 bronze horns or trumpets in the shape of bull horns.
According to John M. Coles, the horns ( Irish dord ) come in two basic types:
- With the "end-blow" the air escapes through a rather small opening at the end of the horn.
- With the "side-blow" the air escapes through a fairly large opening on the side of the horn.
It has been suggested that the horns could function like Australian didgeridoos . Experiments with both basic types from the Drumbest hoard, with what is probably the only surviving pair of playable trumpets from the Bronze Age, have shown that they could even be played without modern mouthpieces. They turned out to be musically tuned and capable of producing a simple melody.
literature
- John M. Coles : Irish Bronze Age Horns 1963
- Laurence Flanagan : Ancient Ireland: Life Before the Celts. Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 1998, p. 224.
- Simon O'Dwyer : Prehistoric Music of Ireland (Revealing History). 2004.
Individual evidence