The \'lost\' Lituus reconstructed.. or is it?

[Robert Vermaat]

Here's a BBC article about the reconstruction of the Roman Lituus. However, as the article honestly reports, "Until now, no one had a clear idea of what this instrument looked or sounded like". The reserachers therefore "developed a system that enabled them to design the Lituus from the best guesses of its shape and range of notes". "The result was a 2.4m (8ft) -long thin straight horn, with a flared bell at the end. It is an unwieldy instrument with a limited tonal range that is hard to play. But played well, it gives Johann Sebastian Bach's motet a haunting feel that couldn't be reproduced by modern instruments".

I must confess, the tones are indeed... haunting. Not my cup of tea. :roll:

The end result looks in fact like depictions of a tuba:


And so it might be possible that a lituus was indeed similar to a tuba, or maybe the researchers from Edinburgh recreated.. a tuba:


For those who still think that the lituus from Deepeeka is a Roman lituus, read this.