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Complete carnyx, boar head standard found in Norfolk
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).
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.
The newly discovered carnyx shows signs of repair, said [Mark Hinman, chief executive of Pre-Construct Archaeology], indicating it was in use over a long period. While it was partially dismantled before being buried, with the shield bosses placed carefully on top, “the whole of the bell and the head are relatively complete – and it’s the only one that’s ever been found where they haven’t taken the ears off. It’s got these great big flappy ears which are wonderful, and they’re still in place.
“Objects like this remind us how little we know about so many different aspects of our past. These objects had names, people thought they were imbued by power. They may even have thought that they were alive at certain times in their existence – and all of the stories that go with them are lost.”
Having such a complete example will give musicologists a very rare opportunity to learn more about how carnyces were played and the sounds they produced. The first carnyx found almost complete with the tube and mouthpiece was discovered in a hoard with six other partial carnyces in Tintignac, south central France, in 2004. It had been deliberately broken into 40 pieces and when conservators pieced it back together, they realized it was missing only one section of the tube, giving researchers the first opportunity to reconstruct a full carnyx to figure out how it was played. Previous theoretical reconstructions had only had surviving bells to replicate, with the tube and mouthpiece recreated based on imagery found on coins and artifacts like the Gundestrup Cauldron. Eight years after the find, a replica of the Tintignac carnyx was completed and its beautiful and chilling sound recreated.
The Thetford carnyx is less fragmented but still very fragile, so the conservation and stabilization process will be just as deliberate and painstaking as it was for the Tintignac carnyx. The hoard has been reported as a potential treasure find. A coroner’s court will decide if it qualifies as official Treasure (it does) later this year.
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