Of the more famous instruments used throughout prehistoric Celtic Europe (and other neighbouring cultures) is a form of ceremonial trumpet known as the carnyx, similar to the Etruscan and Roman lituus (originally also a divinatory staff) both of which are attested in the archaeological and early historical records. Equally, it bears a similarity to ancient Dacian trumpets, and even instruments known from ancient India.
The carnyx itself was a long, vertically-held, slightly J-shaped or S-shaped horn, generally with a metal mouthpiece and bell, the latter being shaped in the form of a religiously-significant animal's head, such as that of a boar or, more rarely, a wolf. Given that few fragments of a carnyx tube remain from the archaeological record, it is thought that they were usually made of wood.
In terms of visual representations, the carnyx is no doubt most famously shown in one of the panels of the Gundestrup Cauldron (National Museum of Denmark) which shows three carnyx players apparently in the midst of a ceremonial procession involving either human sacrifice in a cauldron, or alternatively, a mysterious ritual "baptism" or even reincarnation of dead warriors through dipping them into a life-giving cauldron, such as we find narrated in later historical Celtic mythical texts. This is often taken to indicate a religious function for the carnyx, but also seems to associate the instrument with warfare.
Unfortunately, no carnyces from Lothian itself have survived. However, one carnyx head is at least Scottish, found at a Bronze-Iron Age settlement (possibly palisaded) at Leitchestown Farm, Deskford in Banffshire (click here for a location map provided by StreetMap). It is probably of Caledonian (proto-Pictish) provenance, which would allow reasonable inferences to be made regarding its probable similarity to the kinds of carnyces which we might expect to have been used within the proto-Brythonic period in ancient Lothian.
The surviving fragments of the Deskford carnyx were discovered around 1816 during peat-digging, and according to George Innes, writing in 1845:
There was found, about twenty years ago, on the confines of a farm called Liechestown, the resemblance of a swine's head in brass, of the ordinary size, with a wooden tongue moveable by springs. It also had eyes, and the resemblance in every respect was wonderfully exact. It was found at a depth of about six feet, in a mossy and knolly piece of ground upon a bed of clay. The ground abounded with hazel-nuts, which looked entire, but, upon being opened, were found empty.[1]
The discovery of a deposit of hazel nuts apparently strewn around the artefact is curious, and is potentially suggestive of a votive context for its burial in a peat-bog - a type of watery location well-known for its religious associations in ancient Celtic pagan ritual.
This first excavation of the site was written up by John Alexander Smith in 1867, who compares it to various Germanic, as well as Celtic artefacts, but comes to the conclusion that it was more likely to have formed part of a ceremonial helmet than a musical instrument.[2] Smith's report includes the following detailed diagram:
SWINE'S HEAD OF BRONZE FOUND AT LEICHESTOWN, BANFFSHIRE
1. Bronze Swine's Head, with round disk now attached to its base (8½ inches in greatest length).
2. Lower Jaw, separate. 3. Bronze Plate, supposed to be Palate of the Swine's Head.
4. Lateral View of Bronze Plate, or palate. 5. Posterior View of the same plate.
A 1994 excavation of the site yielded further hazel nuts, fragments of a birch bark container and a large pot. In the following year, additional pits containing likely votive remains (including apparently cremated animal bones) were discovered in the areas adjacent to the location of the artefact, along with nearby fragments of Samian ware.[3] Such "ritual" deposits are often associated with Iron Age settlements, and so in this case, a religious context cannot be easily ruled out. Intriguingly, it appears that the artefact may have been ritually dis-assembled or "sacrificed" prior to its internment.
What remains of the artefact itself is constructed of sheet bronze and brass, and possibly dates from around the 1st century AD, placing it within a proto-Pictish cultural context. Furthermore, the use of brass (a Roman import or influence?) and the discovery of Roman Samian ware in the surrounding area provides further similar clues to the artefact's date.
Carnyces are often associated with warfare in ancient representations, not least those within the Romano-Celtic period, from Trajan's Column in Rome to coins from various regions of the Roman Empire. This use for the instrument seems to have given it a reputation amongst the Celts' neighbours and enemies not that far removed from the later use of the bagpipes by Highland armies, and also gives us a further clue as to the kind of music played on it within this context. As the Greek Diodurus writes of the Celts in general, such war-trumpets could produce a fearsome, warlike noise:
Their trumpets again are of a peculiar barbarian kind; they blow into them and produce a harsh sound which suits the tumult of war[4]
Specifically, during the Celtic invasion of Greece and the infamous attack on the sacred centre of Delphi in 279BC, the Greeks were faced with just such a sonic assault. And later, the Greco-Roman historian, Polybius recounts the use of war-horns and trumpets at the Battle of Telemon in 225BC, one of the first major encounters between the young Roman state and its closest Celtic neighbours in Cisalpine Gaul (Northern Italy). According to Polybius, the Celts made a "dreadful din":
for there were innumerable hornblowers and trumpeters and, as the whole army were shouting their war-cries at the same time, there was such a tumult of sound that it seemed that not only the trumpeters and the soldiers but all the country round had got a voice and caught up the cry[5]
Yet unlike at Delphi, the Celts lost at Telemon, and this battle in fact marks the beginning of the Roman expansion into Celtic Europe as a whole, and thus the start of the western end of the Roman Empire. But as the Romans advanced towards the Atlantic, first under Julius Caesar across Gaul, and then under Claudius into Britain, war-trumpets seem to have been a continued feature of their military encounters with the Celtic tribes.
It would be tempting, of course, to think of carnyces being used by the ancient Brigantians and Caledonians of Northern Britain in their resistance against later Roman campaigns. The Roman historian, Tacitus gives us an intriguing account of Agricola's attempt to take Caledonia, not least the events around the Battle of Mons Graupius in 84AD. It is here that Tacitus famously reports the alleged speech by Calgacus, the Caledonian leader, prior to the battle, and Tacitus' account bears striking similarity to those of Diodorus and Polybius above:
This speech was received with enthusiasm, expressed, as barbarians express it, by shouting, singing and confused applause. Bodies of troops began to move and arms blazed, as the adventurous sallied out in front, and all the time their battle-line was taking shape.[6]
Unfortunately, this noisy singing (or chanting?) is Tacitus' only reference to Celtic music here, but it is likely that in the general pre-battle din which greeted Calgacus' speech, war-horns and trumpets were also blown, just as they were at Delphi and Telemon in preceeding centuries. Certainly, the dating of the Deskford carnyx puts it pretty safely within this historical period. Some of the Caledonian army at Mons Graupius may even have heard it in use at some ceremony or other. More romantically, it is not entirely outwith the bounds of possibility that it was played at Mons Graupius itself!
In actual design, the Deskford carnyx is conventionally-interpreted within the La Tène style of artwork, which originates in the Celtic heartlands of ancient Central Europe, but only later finds its way into Northern Britain, possibly through the influence of the Gaulish Parisii tribe's settlement of Eastern Yorkshire. More specifically, Stuart Piggott has claimed that:
The Deskford piece relates stylistically to Brigantian work such as that from Melsonby and on the other to east Scottish pieces such as the massive armlets and snake bracelets of rather later date.[7]
Again, this stylistic relation to Brigantian metalwork allows us to infer similarities between the Deskford artefact and those presumably used by, for example, the Brythonic culture of Gododdin in ancient Lothian. Today, the it is held in the National Museum in Edinburgh:
The Deskford Carnyx, NMS, Edinburgh
Thanks to the work of musicologist John Purser and silversmith John Creed, a modern reconstruction of this artefact as a carnyx now exists, and a CD containing works written for it by contemporary Scottish composers and performed by trombonist John Kenny can be bought from Carnyx & Co.
In reconstructing carnyces, their precise pitch is a matter of conjecture, given that their wooden tubes have generally completely decayed. Taking the evidence of visual representations such as those found on the Gundestrup Cauldron and Trajan's Column, though, a reasonable guess as to the average tube length and thus pitch-range can be made, and John Creed's reconstruction is probably about as close as we can now come to hearing what an ancient carnyx would have sounded like. Of course, we have no idea as to what kind of music the ancient Celts would have played on it, but it does seem from the Gundestrup Cauldron at least that it would not be unusual for three of the instruments to be played together (and 3 was, of course, a sacred number to the ancient Celts).
more to follow...
Thanks to Dr. Fraser Hunter (Principal Curator, Iron Age & Roman Collections, NMS) for discussions on the Deskford carnyx.
footnotes
[1] George Innes, "Parish of Deskford", in The New Statistical Account of Scotland (Edinburgh: 1845), Vol. 13, pp.66-67.
[2] John Alexander Smith, "Notice of a Remarkable Bronze Ornament with Horns, found in Galloway, now at Abbotsford. Also of a Bronze Ornament like a 'Swine's Head,' found in Banffshire", in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol.7, 1867, pp.346-347.
[4] Diodorus Siculus, Histories 5.30.
[5] Polybius, History 29. 5-9.
[6] Tacitus, The Life of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Chapter 23.