History of the Bronze Age Horns

Professor Peter Holmes of London believes that the first Bronze horns could have been cast in the North East of Ireland about 1500 B.C. These were quite small, relatively heavy and not highly decorated. Gradually as the culture surrounding them spread South through the Island, so too the casting expertise improved until the youngest instruments were made in the South West around 800 B.C. Because of this gradual evolvement, a wide variety of shape, design and size of horn were made. It appears that certain particular designs and tuning were indicative of the area where an instrument was made.

There are even sound files of the horns being played. Cool!