Summon the Gods and the People to the Sound of the Conch Trumpet
(2010) International Conference of Near Eastern Archaeomusicology (ICONEA) — Location: London (15.December.2010)
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- Abstract
- (en) During recent excavations in the Syrian coastal harbour town Tell Tweini (ancient Gibala) various triton shells were excavated nearby an Iron Age temple complex from around 900 BC. From two of these shells the apex was removed in a professional way, which could indicate that they functioned as musical instruments, more specifically as conch trumpets. These conch trumpets were possibly used in a cultic and/or communicative context. Ancient iconography illustrates priests playing the conch trumpet before a horned altar. Beside this religious function, it is a challenge to find confirmation for the use of the conch trumpet as signalizing/communicative device. Experiments concerning these communicative abilities were conducted, by testing the pitch, volume and range of the sound of the conch trumpets. The results of these tests will be presented in this paper.
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Citations
Gorris, E., & Verhulst, W. (2010). Summon the Gods and the People to the Sound of the Conch Trumpet. International Conference of Near Eastern Archaeomusicology (ICONEA), London. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/197292