Presented by Karl Kemm

Horn Story​

Terra cotta horn
Replica of Roman Empire terracotta signal horn c. AD100
Crafted by Naomi Martinez, Cibola high school 1982

Clay horns had the advantage of being easy to construct and inexpensively replaced when broken.  Their smaller size allowed for carrying convenience over the lengthy tuba and lituus or the bulky cornu.  Cultures having incidental contact with the Romans, like the Celtiberian Spaniards and Ptolemaic Egyptians, or no contact at all like the South American Moche seem to have independently developed similar versions of earthen material horns.  The horn pictured here was given to me by a band colleague and created as part of an art class ceramics assignment. 

Earthen Horns