200-year-old ceramic trumpet found in Dorfen

A rare ceramic trumpet found in Dorfen, Upper Bavaria, has been reassembled from eight fragments. The trumpet is now virtually complete, missing only the mouthpiece and a small chunk of the bell.

Due to its construction, the instrument, which is just under 44 centimeters long, resembles the shape of metal trumpets. However, the Dorfen trumpet is a so-called natural trumpet, meaning an instrument without valves or keys, in which the different notes are produced solely by the tension of the lips.

The trumpet was discovered in a 2022 excavation of the town’s moat near one of the city’s gates. That section of the moat was used by the tanning trade in the processing of animal skins into leather. The trade was notorious for the stenches, caustic tanning agents and noxious byproducts it generated, so tanneries were in a rough part of town. It’s possible the trumpet was used not to play music, but as a kind of emergency alert system to blast warnings about fires and other dangers.

Artifacts found in the same archaeological layer date it to the late 18th or early 19th century, which is an unexpectedly later date than the few other ceramic trumpets discovered in excavations. They typically date to the late Middle Ages or early Modern period. The glaze and construction of the Dorfen trumpet are also different compared to the earlier finds, making it a unique example.

“The discovery of the ceramic trumpet from Dorfen is a stroke of luck for the preservation of archaeological monuments,” says Mathias Pfeil, Director General of the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments (BLfD). The delicate instrument, made of fragile material, is almost completely preserved, Pfeil explains: “It can contribute significantly to learning more about the manufacturing techniques and uses of such instruments – because clay trumpets are rare archaeological finds in Bavaria and in Germany.”

* This article was originally published here