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Prehistorical cast brass horn (usually called a lur, also lure or lurr horn) was in this comic strip today. Somewhat accurately drawn!

I remember reading that the lur was originally made from mastodon tusks, and they were usually found in pairs, each horn curved in a mirror image from the other.

OldsRecording wrote:I remember reading that the lur was originally made from mastodon tusks, and they were usually found in pairs, each horn curved in a mirror image from the other.

Gotten gullible from swallowing too many toads?

The bronze-age lurs were all made from bronze in a very complicated casting process, where even the seams between the sections of tubing were made within a mold that held two pieces of tubing in the right positions.

But yes, they really were made in mirrored pairs.

Even modern replicas made out of drawn and then hydraulically shaped tubing are very expensive.

I have played a Danish made replica in Eb alto. Very responsive up to the 10th partial.

Klaus

"Lur, also spelled lure , bronze horn, or trumpet, found in prehistoric Scandinavian excavations. It has a conical bore that extends in length from roughly 5 to 8 feet (1.5 to 2.5 metres) in a bent S-shape (somewhat resembling a mammoth tusk) and ends in an embossed metal disk. The mouthpiece of the lur is permanently affixed. Lurs are usually found in pairs and were probably played ritually."

Is it that far-fetched to suppose that they were at first made from mammoth tusks, and due to the paucity of mammoths, bronze was substituted? That would certainly explain the fact that they were always played in mirrored pairs.

BTW, the only toads I swallow are strictly metaphorical. Real toads are too squishy.

OldsRecording wrote:Is it that far-fetched to suppose that they were at first made from mammoth tusks, and due to the paucity of mammoths, bronze was substituted? That would certainly explain the fact that they were always played in mirrored pairs.

It is very far fetched. Where to start? A mammoth tusk would take a lot of work to make into a musical instrument, because they're mostly solid. On the other hand, mammoths were extinct thousands of years before the bronze age in northern Europe & Scandinavia. And the thing doesn't look that much like a mammoth tusk anyway.

There were at least 8000 years between the mammoths going extinct from the Scandinavian area until the making of the lurs. As Encyclopedia Brittanica’s allusion to mammoths’ tusks is strictly metaphorical, it is far fetched to assume the lurs were ever made from these tusks.

Klaus

Maybe they found them. After all, it is postulated that the Greek myth of the Cyclops was inspired by the discovery of mammoth skulls in the mountains to the north. Tusks may be 'solid' but only the outermost layer is actual ivory, the innermost layers are dentin, and might have decayed over time.

Good luck with your dissertation!

imperialbari wrote:

image.jpg

Good luck with your dissertation!

At least give me credit for my own photo-manipulation in my own thread, Imperialbari!

imperialbari wrote:

image.jpg

Good luck with your dissertation!

I never said you could take my theory to the bank. Well, you could, I suppose, but they'd just look at you funny. I am merely stating that the similarity of shape simply cannot be a coincidence.

David Richoux wrote:

imperialbari wrote:

image.jpg

Good luck with your dissertation!

At least give me credit for my own photo-manipulation in my own thread, Imperialbari!

Sorry! Thought more sbout the pun, than about giving credit. Should have been aware not everybody remembers this:

viewtopic.php?p=283619#p283619

Klaus