For today’s Finds Friday, a closer look at one of the most striking pieces from the Iron Age hoard discovered by PCA: the Norfolk carnyx.
The carnyx was a tall, animal-headed war horn, played upright so its sound could carry across the landscape. It wasn’t just a musical instrument, but a tool of psychological warfare, designed to intimidate, unsettle and overwhelm before any fighting began. Ancient writers were clearly struck by its effect. Describing the battle of Telamon, the Greek historian Polybius (c.200–c.118 BC) wrote that the combined sound of carnyces and other war horns was so overwhelming that it seemed to ’emanate from the entire countryside’.
The head of the Norfolk carnyx is formed from thin copper-alloy sheet, worked in repoussé to create a snarling dragonesque boar’s face with prominent brows, lozenge-shaped eyes and a wide open, toothed mouth with separate tusks. Leaf-shaped ears frame the head, while a long openwork crest runs down the outside of the bell. Around the neck, a raised collar and paired discs give the impression of a torc encircling the animal’s throat. Traces of applied material survive in the eyes, once giving them a vivid, lifelike presence.
More than one carnyx is represented in the hoard, with parts of at least a second instrument also present. Only a handful of carnyces are known from Britain, and very few anywhere in Europe survive in such a complete and complex form.
This discovery is being researched and conserved in collaboration with Historic England, Norfolk Museums Service, and National Museums Scotland.
You’ll be able to see more of this discovery on Digging for Britain next week, and we’ll be sharing further updates as conservation and research continue.
