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John Kenny playing the carnyx.
Deskford Carnyx
watercolour of carnyx c.1867
keystone with carnyx, Palazz di Conservatori, Rome
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About The Carnyx
The Carnyx was a long Celtic trumpet made
of beaten bronze and held vertically so that the sound travels from
more than three metres above the ground. It was known through
much of Europe from about 200BC to 200AD and was widely depicted
- notably on the Gundestrup bowl which shows three carnyces being
played simultaneously.
The best surviving part of a carnyx was found
in North East Scotland and exhibits local design elements. The end
of the instrument is in the form of a wild boar's head, and it has
a movable tongue and lower jaw. The craftsmanship is superb.
The reconstruction was co-ordinated by myself as musicologist, made
by John Creed, with archaeological
advice from Fraser Hunter,
and in consultation with John
Kenny. It was funded jointly by a Glenfiddich Living
Scotland award and by the National Museums of Scotland, who
own both the original artifact and the reconstruction.
John
Purser
Historical background
The Deskford Carnyx is the head of an Iron
Age lip-reed instrument. Found in the North East of Scotland
around 1816, it has long been recognised as a masterpiece of Celtic
art, shaped to resemble a wild boar with its upturned snout and
decoration which mirrors the folds of skin around a boar's face.
It is a complex composite construction, wrought
from sheet bronze and brass. This helps us date it because
brass is not native to Scotland; it represents recycled Roman metal.
Along with other evidence, this suggests a date between c. 100 and
300AD for its construction.
Today only the head survives; it lacks the
erect crest, ears, enamelled eyes, wooden tongue and long cylindrical
tube which it once had. For evidence of these we must turn
to other examples.
The Carnyx was once common throughout much of Europe,
although only five fragments are known to us, of which Deskford
is the finest. It flourished between 300BC and 200AD, and
found widespread use in Britain, France, parts of Germany, eastwards
to Romania, and beyond. Bands of Celtic mercenaries took it
on their travels; Carnyces were present at the attack on the Greek
sanctuary at Delphi in 279BC; Carnyces defied Julius Caesar in Gaul;
Carnyces faced Claudius when he invaded Britain. They are
often represented on a sculpture in India, proof of the far-flung
connections of the Iron Age world. Yet they are not, as is
often stated, purely a Celtic instrument; they were also used among
the Dacians, in modern Romania. The term Celtic is, in any
case, a difficult one. The idea of a Pan-European Celtic culture
is a myth; rather, aspects of art and technology were shared over
wide areas among diverse cultures. The Carnyx was one facet
of this.
Clearly the Camyx can only be understood in an international
context. It is to Europe and beyond that we turn for parallels.
Yet it must also be studied in its local context if we are to get
the full picture. Although it is of a type found across Europe,
this is a specifically local variant. The decoration is typical
of metalwork in north-east Scotland at the time, where there was
a flourishing tradition of fine bronze-working.
The local context can also help us understand its
fate. The original account of its discovery records that it
was found at the bottom of a moss. Excavations by the National
Museums of Scotland over the past four years, directed by the writer,
have examined this findspot. We can now show beyond reasonable
doubt that the Carnyx ended its life as a sacrifice, a votive offering
to some unknown god. There is a widespread belief that wet
locations were sacred places where you could contact the gods. Valuable
finds often occur in peat bogs as gifts to win a deity's favour.
At Deskford we have evidence of a series of offerings
made in pits cut into the peat; smashed pottery, joints of meat,
a cache of charm-stones. These are the offerings of the everyday,
the tokens of a farming people asking their gods for good weather
or thanking them for a fine harvest. The Carnyx was more than
this; it must have been a spectacular sacrifice, at a time of great
danger or great celebration. Before being offered to the
gods, it was 'killed' by dismantling it, and perhaps only the head
was placed in the bog.
The impetus for this research came from John Purser
and his desire to make a reconstruction Carnyx. The design
for the reconstruction was based on the extensive European parallels
mentioned above. Although surviving examples are few, there
are many depictions of Carnyces, especially on Roman triumphal sculpture
and coinage; the legions encountered it in battle, and thought it
so strange that it was used as an emblem of the tribes they fought.
This gives us a wide range of comparative material, of varying quality.
Some factors in the reconstruction are inevitably speculative: the
original length and diameter of the tube, for instance, is unknown,
although the dimensions fall within the known range. More
awkward is the nature of the mouthpiece, for which evidence is poor.
However, the reconstruction is as accurate as we can make it on
current knowledge.
What did we learn from it? We learned that
a combination of archaeology, craftsmanship and music is a powerfully
creative one in deciphering such fragments. We learned about
the effort involved in making these instruments; it took four hundred
hours to craft the reconstruction, showing what prized possessions
they must have been. And we now know something of what it
sounded like. A reconstruction can never recreate the sounds
of the past; apart from imponderables in the instrument design,
we know nothing of Iron Age views of music. However it can
evoke these sounds, and show what could have been played on such
instruments. As the contents of these recordings
by John Kenny show, the possibilities are greater that anyone could
have believed. It makes a fitting tribute to the craftsmen
and musicians of almost 2000 years ago.
Fraser Hunter, Dept of Archaeology, National
Museums of Scotland
Illustrations � NMS
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