Iberian Helmets

[hispano]

I allways wondered: "What do they sound like??"

Hello Folkert
Im working right now with the horns and their sound is very varied. They work like aerophones and the sound they make comes from the vibration of the air inside the tube amplified by the mouth and the ear holes which allow sound to exit: if you put high pressure air intermittently, the sound is very similar to that of a mad wild boar shouting. If you lower the pressure and maintain the sound, then it sounds like a howling wolf, and if you make it with several horns at the same time it sounds like a wolf pack howling.

Trying to solve why celtiberian preferred building the of mud instead of metal like celtic carnyx, even though they had the technology to make them in metal aswell, I built a carnyx like the ones found in Tintignac ( "Les carnyx de Tintignac", Cristophe Maniquet, 2005, ¨Archéologia¨ nº 419, pp 16-23.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... ompass.jpg
http://www.romanhideout.com/News/2004/20041129_fr.asp
they are the first found complete and surprisingly they dont have nozzle or curvature in the tube to blow), but the result is the same: the tube of the mud horn has approximately the same lengt as the metal carnyx, and the result is that they sound alike, or at least I cant differentiate them. The sound can be modulated as modern tubes or horns, which allows for simple melodie making.

If you want to try it easily, we have built plastic horns for kids with PVC tubes and plastic containers cutting out the shape of a wolf or wild boar, and cutting bottles in half for the ears. The result is surprising because they sound just like the mud or metal ones, and the boys have a great time