Archaeologists from Pre-Construct Archaeology, a company which specialises in carrying out archaeological surveys ahead of construction projects, have uncovered a hoard of Iron Age artefacts while working at a site in west Norfolk, England, designated for a new housing project. This includes five shield bosses, a bronze Boar's head which was probably used as a standard, some indeterminate iron objects, and the remains of two carynces, a form of S-shaped trumpet-like (or possibly vuvuzela-like) musical instrument widely used by Celtic peoples across Europe between about 200 BC and about 200 AD. One of these instruments is fragmentary in nature, but the other is remarkably intact, making it a significant find.
Carynces were periscope-shaped wind instruments, with a long central portion intended to be help upright, to which were attached at approximate right angles a short mouthpiece, and a wide bell in the shape of an Animal head. These were used in battle with the shape of the instrument placing the head from which the noise emitted above the heads of the warriors. Greek authors such as Polybius, recall that carynces were played in massed formations ahead of battles to intimidate opponents.
This is the first carynx uncovered in the UK in over two centuries, and on the third time such an instrument has been found in Britain. The first British example was dredged from the River Witham at Tattershall Ferry in 1768, with a second found buried with a small hoard in a field in Deskford, Banffshire, in 1816. Examples are also known from several sites on the continent, where they are also recorded by Greek and Roman writers, emphasising the connections between pre-Roman Britain and the peoples of Europe.
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